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trueebeauty · 4 months

Note

ahh i loved your fic about the kings + their problems!! the reverse comfort sprinkled in was just perfect <3 (these men make me so sad *sniffle*)

i would love if you could write some reverse comfort scenarios where they somehow end up crying in front of you, and you just (despite what they might be used to or fear) just hold them and comfort them and let them cry TT

you can decide who you want to write for, god knows they all need a good cry and a hug..

no pressure of coursw, and remember to takw care of yourself!! have a nice day/night :)

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ notes ; tysm!!! there are a bunch of requests very similar to this one, so I'll use your request for it!! <333

pt.1 of 'the kings + their problems

𝖩𝖨𝖢𝖧𝖠𝖭𝖦 𝖪𝖶𝖠𝖪 - Jichang may initially resist comfort, feeling that as a leader he shouldn't show weakness. He's used to being strong and in control. But as you simply hold him and let him cry, he slowly allows himself to be vulnerable. Through his tears, he expresses feeling overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility and the need to always put on a brave face. Allowing himself to be comforted helps him release pent-up emotions and makes him feel less alone.

You sat across from Jichang as he sat there in silence, his head in his hands. Jihan and Jibeom had decided to pull a stupid prank on him by not responding to him for over six days, and he had been scared thinking something had happened to them.

"Jichang," you said softly, "they were just playing around, I don’t know wh–"

You stopped, noticing his shoulders start to shake. A quiet sob escaped him, muffled by his hands. Your heart ached seeing him like this, he was usually so calm and composed.

You moved to sit beside him, gently placing a hand on his back. "Hey," you murmured, "it's okay. They're safe. Everything's alright."

Jichang shook his head, still not looking up. "I thought... I thought something had happened to them. I was so scared." His voice was thick with tears, barely above a whisper.

You wrapped your arm around his arm, pulling him closer to you. "I know. It's a terrible feeling. But they're okay, I promise."

He leaned into you, finally lifting his head. His face was streaked with tears, his eyes red and puffy. "I feel so stupid," he choked out. "Getting this upset over a prank."

You shook your head, reaching out to wipe away his tears. "It's not stupid. You care about them, and you were worried. That's normal."

Jichang's lower lip trembled as fresh tears spilled over as you pulled him fully into your arms, letting him bury his face in your shoulder, rubbing his back soothingly. "It's okay…"

He clung to you, his body shaking with sobs. You held him tightly, providing a safe space for him to let go of the fear and stress and responsibility he always carried.

"I was so scared," he repeated, his voice muffled against your shirt. "I thought I'd failed them. Failed as a leader, as a brother."

"You could never fail them," you assured him. "You care so much, Jichang. It's okay to be scared sometimes. It means you love them."

He held onto you like a lifeline as he cried, letting out all the pent-up emotions. You stayed there, a steady presence, whispering reassurances and just letting him feel.

In that moment of vulnerability, he found comfort and strength in your presence. He wasn't alone. With you, he could be human. With you, he was safe.

𝖲𝖤𝖮𝖭𝖦𝖩𝖨 𝖸𝖴𝖪 - Seongji might feel ashamed and angry at himself for crying, seeing it as a sign of weakness unbefitting his tough persona. He tries to pull away at first, embarrassed to be seen in a vulnerable state. But as you continue to offer gentle comfort, he begrudgingly accepts it. He admits in a rare moment of openness that he's terrified of being seen as weak or incapable, having built walls to protect himself. Being held makes him feel safe enough to let his guard down for once.

You were in Seongji's room, quietly cleaning up the scattered medication that he had spilled. He was hidden away, but you could feel his presence, the tense silence heavy in the air. As you picked up each pill one by one, you heard a soft, choked sound. You looked over to see Seongji fighting back tears as he watched you.

You stood slowly, the pills forgotten. "Seongji," you said softly, approaching him cautiously.

He turned away, trying to hide his face as the tears began to cascade down his cheeks. "Don't," he choked out. "Don't look at me."

But you couldn't just leave him like this. You knelt down beside him with a frown, "What's going on?"

He shook his head, a sob catching in his throat. "I can't... I can't do this anymore. I'm so tired."

Your heart ached for him. You had known he was struggling, but you hadn't realized just how much.

"I'm so tired," he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper. "And so scared..."

You slipped next to him, being mindful not to invade his space. "Why are you scared, Seongji?" you asked gently.

He took a shuddering breath, his gaze fixed on the floor. "The kids, Cheonliang, you... he's going to take everything from me."

"Seongji," you said softly, your heart breaking for him. You couldn't help but reach out, placing a hand on his arm. He flinched but didn't pull away. "Seongji, listen to me. He is wrong. You are enough, more than enough. And he can't take away the things that truly matter."

Seongji finally looked at you, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. "But what if he does? What if I lose everything?"

You moved closer, slowly, giving him time to move away if he wanted. When he didn't, you wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "You won't lose me," you told him firmly. "No matter what happens, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

A sob caught in his throat. "I'm so scared of being alone," he confessed, his voice breaking.

You pulled him into your arms, and this time, he didn't resist. He melted into your embrace, his body shaking as he finally let himself cry. "You're not alone, Seongji," you murmured, rubbing his back soothingly. "You have me. You have Cheonliang. You have the kids. We're your family."

He cried harder at that, clinging to you like a lifeline. "I don't know how to do this," he gasped out between sobs. "I don't know how to let people in."

You held him tighter, resting your cheek on the top of his head. "You're doing it right now," you told him softly. "You're letting me in. And I'm so proud of you for that."

He sniffled, burrowing further into your embrace. "What if I mess it up? What if I push you away?"

"Then I'll come back," you said simply. "I'll always come back, Seongji. Because I care about you. Because you're worth it."

He pulled back slightly, searching your face as if looking for any sign of deception. When he found none, fresh tears spilled over. "Thank you," he whispered. "For being here. For... for loving me."

You smiled softly, wiping away his tears with gentle fingers. "Always," you promised. "You're stuck with me, Seongji Yuk. In good times and bad. I'm not going anywhere."

𝖳𝖠𝖤𝖲𝖮𝖮 𝖬𝖠 - Taesoo would likely feel uncomfortable crying in front of someone, not wanting to burden others with his problems. He apologizes repeatedly even as he can't stop the flow of tears. As you hold him and assure him it's okay, he hesitantly relaxes into the comfort. He confesses to feeling guilty for being selfish by accepting care and worrying he's being an inconvenience. Reassurance from you helps him start to believe that he deserves care too.

You walked into the bedroom, concerned that Taesoo had been gone for too long. There he sat on the edge of the bed, head in his hands, lost in misery and unaware of your entrance.

"Taesoo?" you called softly.

His head snapped up, eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said quickly, wiping his face. "I didn't hear you come in."

You frowned and stepped closer. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head, forcing a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Nothing. I'm fine."

But a tear escaped, rolling down his cheek. He furiously wiped it away, averting his gaze. "I'm sorry," he said again, voice thick. "I didn't mean to... I don't want to bother you with this."

Saddened by how much he held back, you sat beside him, gently rubbing his back. "You're not bothering me, Taesoo. I care about you. I want to be here for you."

His lower lip trembled as more tears spilled over. "I'm sorry," he whispered repeatedly, a broken record.

You pulled him into an embrace, and he went willingly, still apologizing. "It's okay," you murmured, rubbing his back soothingly.

He shook his head against your shoulder, tears soaking your shirt. "I shouldn't... I shouldn't burden you like this. I'm being selfish."

You held him tighter. "Well, I guess I'm selfish too."

"It's different," Taesoo retorted.

"How is it different?"

Quiet for a moment, his sobs gradually quieted to sniffles. "I feel guilty," he confessed softly. "Guilty for taking up your time, for being an inconvenience."

You pulled back slightly, cupping his face. He averted his gaze, ashamed, but you waited until he met your eyes. "You are never an inconvenience," you told him firmly. "Caring for you, being here for you... it's not a burden. It's a privilege."

Fresh tears of relief, of gratitude, welled in his eyes. "Do you really mean that?" he asked, voice small.

You smiled softly, wiping his tears with your thumbs. "Of course. Taesoo, you deserve care. You deserve love. You deserve to be held when you're hurting."

A shuddering breath escaped him as he leaned in, resting his forehead against yours. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for being here. For... for caring."

You wrapped your arms around him again. "Always," you promised. "I'll always be here, Taesoo. Whenever you need me."

He relaxed into your embrace, finally allowing himself to be comforted, to be cared for - a foreign but welcome feeling. For the first time in a long while, he felt safe. Loved.

"I'm sorry for being such a mess," he mumbled into your shoulder.

You chuckled softly, kissing his temple. "You're not a mess. And I love every part of you, even the messy parts."

He pulled back, searching your face. Whatever he found made fresh tears spring to his eyes, but this time he smiled. "I love you too," he said softly. "More than I know how to say."

Smiling, you leaned in to kiss him gently. "Then don't say it - show me instead."

Taesoo's eyes shone with tenderness as he cupped your face, kissing you deeply. You melted into his embrace, relishing his warmth, his closeness after such vulnerability. Slowly, almost reverently, he laid you back on the bed without breaking the kiss.

—The Rest Is To Your Imagination—

𝖩𝖠𝖤𝖦𝖸𝖤𝖮𝖭 𝖭𝖠 - Jaegyeon may seem unsure how to react to being comforted at first, torn between wanting to maintain his image and craving care. He's not used to being on the receiving end of comfort. But as you simply hold him without judgment, he allows himself to cry freely, expressing a need to always be perfect that leaves him fearful of failing. Being held makes him feel accepted as he is, flaws and all.

The news of Seongji's death hit everyone hard, but surprisingly Jaegyeon seemed the most affected. From what you knew, your boyfriend wasn't one to make friends - acquaintances sure, but actual friends?

That wasn't like Jaegyeon at all. You never realized how much he truly respected Seongji until now. You knew he had a better relationship with Seongji compared to the other kings, but you would've expected the others to be in the position you now saw your boyfriend in.

You approached him quietly and slowly, trying to gauge if he was okay with you being near. He looked up, eyes red and puffy. "I should have been there," he whispered, voice hoarse. "I should have stayed with him after he lost his fingers."

You sat down beside him with a small sigh. "Jaegyeon, you can't blame yourself. Seongji was a grown man, capable of making his own decisions."

Jaegyeon shook his head, a tear slipping down his cheek. "But he wasn't at full power anymore. I knew that, and I still left him. If I had stayed..."

You took his hand, squeezing it gently. "You all knew that, but each one of you had your own responsibilities. Cheonliang was his, and Incheon yours." You paused, letting him take it in before continuing. "Besides, if you had stayed, Seongji might have felt offended, like you didn't believe in his ability to handle things on his own."

Jaegyeon was quiet for a moment, considering your words. "Maybe," he conceded. "But I can't help but feel like I failed him. Like I should have done more."

You wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. "It's natural to have regrets, to question the 'what ifs'. But we can't change the past, Jaegyeon. All we can do is honor Seongji's memory and carry on his legacy."

Jaegyeon leaned into your embrace, his shoulders shaking as he finally allowed himself to cry. You held him tightly, providing a safe space for his grief.

"I miss him," Jaegyeon murmured. "Surprisingly. Never would I have thought I would ever say that."

You rubbed his back soothingly as a chuckle escaped you. "That hurts my feelings. I've never heard you say you miss me," you pouted.

"You're always with me," Jaegyeon said as he pushed you fully onto the couch, burying his face in your neck.

"Not by choice," you whispered in amusement before wincing slightly. "Ouch! Did you just bite me?"

Jaegyeon nodded against your shoulder, his tears gradually subsiding. "Yes," he said shamelessly, pulling back to wipe his face. "I heard that."

Your eye twitched before you tried to kick him, but Jaegyeon just managed a small smile as he caught your leg.

You glared at Jaegyeon, but there was no real heat behind it as he simply smirked and kept a firm grip on your leg. Realizing you were stuck, you huffed and crossed your arms over your chest.

"You're impossible," you grumbled, feigning annoyance.

Jaegyeon's smirk melted into a softer smile as he released your leg and shifted closer, wrapping his arms around you. He nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck, breathing in your comforting scent.

"Maybe," he murmured against your skin, "but you love me anyway."

You rolled your eyes, but couldn't fight the fond smile that tugged at your lips as you brought a hand up to card through his hair. Jaegyeon let out a contented sigh, pressing closer.

The two of you stayed like that for a while, finding solace in each other's embrace. The grief was still there, an ache in Jaegyeon's chest, but with you by his side, it felt...bearable. Manageable.

𝖦𝖮𝖭𝖦𝖲𝖤𝖮𝖡 𝖩𝖨 - Gongseob might worry he's being weak and childish for crying, even as he can't help but lean into the comfort of being held. He admits through tears that he feels he always has to be this ‘person’ and can't show sadness or pain. Being able to cry without being mocked or scolded comes as a relief. The simple comfort with no strings attached allows him a safe space to release hurt and be genuine.

You made your way through your newly bought temple, inspecting every nook and cranny while making notes here and there. Gongseob trailed behind you, his steps labored as he maneuvered on his crutches.

"Man, it's going to take a lot of work to get this place in shape," you commented, glancing around at the dusty shelves and cracked tiles.

Gongseob grunted in response, the effort of walking clearly straining him. An uncomfortable silence hung between you two.

It had been weeks since the incident with James Lee, where Gongseob lost his leg after having a building dropped on him. He had insisted he was fine, putting up a brave front as always. "I'm tougher than I look, you know," he'd joked with a forced grin.

But you knew him too well to fully believe that facade. The pain and trauma of such an event didn't just disappear with a few jokes.

You didn't want to press him, though. Gongseob would open up when he was ready. For now, you focused on getting the temple in order.

"Gongseob, why don't you rest for a bit?" you suggested, gesturing to a raised platform. "I can handle the rest of the inspection."

He shook his head stubbornly. "I'm fine. Don't need to sit around like some cripple."

A small frown tugged at your lips. "Can you not–" you sighed taking a moment. "It's about pacing yourself while you heal. Please, just take a break."

Gongseob opened his mouth, likely to protest further, but you fixed him with a pointed look. He deflated with a sigh.

"Fine. But I'm not just going to laze around," he muttered, already making his labored way towards the platform.

You nodded reluctantly. "Alright. I'll be back to check on you soon."

With that, you continued your inspection, mentally cataloging areas that needed repair or renovation. The minutes ticked by, and you found yourself going back glancing over at Gongseob's still form every so often.

Finally, you completed your rounds and turned to head back to him. "There's a couple of broken shelves that need to be replaced. We can look into that next..." Your voice trailed off as you took in the scene before you.

Gongseob was in the exact same position you had left him, perched on the edge of the platform. But now, his shoulders were shaking, and tears streamed silently down his face.

You were by his side in an instant. "Gongseob? What's wrong?"

He flinched at the sound of your voice, quickly swiping at his eyes. "N-Nothing. I'm fine."

But the waver in his voice told a different story. You settled down beside him, close but not crowding his space.

"Gongseob," you urged gently. "Please, don't shut me out again."

Gongseob was quiet for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the crutches leaning against the platform. When he finally spoke, his words were thick with unshed tears.

"I'm useless now," he whispered, anguish clear in his tone.

Your heart clenched before you pulled him against your side. "You are not useless, Gongseob," you said firmly. "Losing your leg doesn't change who you are or how much you mean to me."

He shook his head, a choked sound escaping him. "But I'm broken now. Weak. I can't even walk without these stupid things." He gestured angrily at the crutches.

"You're not weak," you countered. "You survived having a building dropped on you. That takes incredible strength, strength that I can only dream of having."

“And you won’t need those forever.”

Gongseob was quiet for a moment, processing your words. Then, slowly, he leaned further into your embrace, fresh tears spilling over.

"I don’t want to be a burden, I don’t want to hold you back," he admitted in a small voice.

You tightened your arm around him, pressing a kiss to his temple. "You could never be a burden, my love. And you'll never hold me back, because we're a team, remember? We do this together, one step at a time."

A watery chuckle escaped him at your pun, and you smiled softly, relieved to see a hint of his usual humor shining through.

He searched your face for a long moment before crumbling against you as you held him close.

When his tears finally subsided, he pulled back, looking almost sheepish. "Sorry for the bitchin’," he said, managing a weak smile.

You shook your head, brushing away the lingering moisture on his cheeks. "Never apologize for being honest with your emotions, Gongseob. That's what I'm here for - to be your safe space."

He leaned into your touch with a contented sigh. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Lucky for you, you'll never have to find out," you said with a grin.

Gongseob laughed, the sound warm and genuine. He leaned in, capturing your lips in a tender kiss. "Thank you," he murmured against your mouth.

You kissed him again, deeper this time. "You’re welcome," you say when you finally broke apart.

One step at a time, one day at a time.

#lookism #lookism headcanons #lookism x reader #lookism x male reader #lookism manhwa #lookism webtoon #kwak jichang #seongji yuk #taesoo ma #jaegyeon na #gongseob ji #james lee

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uncouth-the-fifth · 3 years

Note

congrats on the new followers! what about 108 + 126 with dami and wife!reader?

108. "If you leave the house wearing that, then the second you come over I'm bending you over the bed," and 126. "Y-you're not...w-wearing anything under that, are you?" with Damian Wayne.

ty! i feel like damian would marry someone able to keep up with his sass while throwing some of their own back at him, so a bit of a bratty reader for you <3 i also exposed my slight daddy kink so don’t hate me 🔫

You were trying to goad him. Unfortunately for Damian's ego, it was working.

He watched you twist around in front of the mirror, enjoying the shape of your figure in your new clothes. It'd taken hours of convincing (and a couple threats), but Damian finally coaxed you to let him take you on a shopping trip. Wayne Enterprises had granted him a raise for work that was completely his own. The only way Damian wanted to celebrate was by spoiling another thing that completely belonged to him. He'd worked hard to be his own man in the past few years, and today he'd seen the fruits of his labor. His beautiful wife was happy because of something he'd orchestrated. Damian's reputation was great, and not because of his name or his titles. He lounged by the fireplace in your bedroom, twice as smug as usual.

"Really, Damian, thank you," you told him, sounding bashful. "You could've spent that money on anything, but you spent it on me."

He watched you slip out of one of the party dresses you'd picked out for yourself, the light of the fire throwing soft shadows along your nude body. Damian openly stared, but without (much) sexual intent - just pride. Pride and love. This was his wife, and she enchanted him with every step. You pulled the fabric around your hips until it dropped around your ankles, and Damian's cock twitched in his pants.

He clicked his tongue. "TT." Damian lifted the rim of his teacup to his lips, rumbling, "You needed clothes."

To seduce me with, Damian thought, eyes wandering. You found something comfy to change into and hopped into it right in front of Damian, snugly snapping the waistband of some sweatpants around your middle and dropping a loose shirt over your nude chest. He made a pleased sound in the back of his throat, and you turned back to him with a smile.

“I was thinking about running to pick up some stuff for a night in. Popcorn, desert, that kind of thing.” You danced around the back of his chair and draped your arms over his shoulders, kissing sweetly at the side of his face. “Maybe we could watch a movie together.”

Damian pressed his lips together, eyes squinted with displeasure. “Now?” He grunted.

“Yes, now, Damian.”

You released him to perch on the arm of his chair, making it all too easy for Damian to hook an arm around your waist and drop you down into his lap. A deeper warmth blazed across your face at his blatantly possessive scowl. “But you’re not wearing anything under that.”

“Oh, c’mon,” you roll your eyes, “it’s hot out and who’s really going to see? Some cashier who won’t give me a second glance?”

Damian set down his cup and flushed his hands around your ribs, mapping upward and brushing your breasts beneath the fabric. You were pulled into his body until his chest was snug against your back, dropping a gasp from your lips.

Petulantly, Damian dragged his mouth down your neck and mumbled, “Someone other than me. That is who will see.”

He didn’t actually mean it. Damian, after years of years of being treated like an object himself, was well aware that you both were entitled to control of your bodies. He was playing, which made it even cuter. The whole “you belong to me thing” was sexy, and was made sexier when it was something you could both flick on and off at will. At the moment... you did not want him to shut it off. You wanted to be his, wanted him to take you.

To tease him, you set your hands on the armrests and started to push out of his hold. Damian let you, but if his hands didn’t pull you back, the power in his voice certainly did.

“If you try to leave the house in those clothes,” he warned, “I’m throwing you on the bed and bending you over my knee.”

“Ooh,” you fake-shivered, “I’m so scared—”

In an instant, Damian’s hips were thrust forward into your ass, and your wrists were snapped together and pulled closer to him in one harsh tug. You yelped in strained surprise, which Damian met with a smooth chuckle.

“Hmm,” he purred. “It appears all the coddling I’ve done today has made you bratty, Mrs. Wayne. I think I’ll give you a spanking either way, if you plan to be in such an indulgent mood. Are you going to test me further, Y/N?”

You glared at him, but holding in your excitement was too hard. A grin pinched your cheeks. “Kiss my ass, Damian—”

Twice as fast as before, you were whipped onto your belly and your sweatpants were torn down your legs, exposing your ass once more to the humid air. His hand viciously struck your left cheek, and the dual sensation of the sting and your pussy throbbing wrenched a whine from your throat. Being pushed across his thighs like that had shoved your shirt up and over your tits. Volcanic lust burned deep in your gut - in less than a second, he’d ripped back the curtain to reveal the slut beneath. You struggle to balance, recklessly bracing your palms on the floor. The slap on its own was orgasmic, but coupled with Damian’s anger and the debauched scene - your pliant body greedily lapping up his punishments - you were effectively soaked.

Like this was every other day for him, Damian leaned over you and took a refined sip of his tea.

“I hate you,” you mewled.

Damian snorted. “That wedding ring on your finger tells me otherwise. Now, count to ten. Naughty girls get ten spankings.”

His voice dripped with blistering enjoyment, and you knew that the villainous delight Damian was spending on you now was the last sadism from his assassin days. Damian wasn’t evil anymore, but this was the one time of day where your heart would skip a beat on the subject - if there was ever a moment he’d start plotting to take over the world, it was probably this one. Needless to say, it was fucking delectable.

“Ready?” He purred.

You closed your eyes, snapped your teeth around the bunched fabric of your own shirt, and nodded your head - probably with hearts blazing in your vision.

Damian reeled back his hand and delivered a blow worthy of a world-class assassin. You felt your own ass jiggle, literally jiggle, from the weight of the hit. You poured a shuddering shout into your homemade gag, “O-One!”

Again and again, Damian rounded on you. He’d punished you enough times to perfect the process, so his hits were periodic, but with enough time in between to let you gather your bearings, and yet still short enough to make your ass burn just how you adored. You sent a mental thank you to whoever had given him that beautiful brain, because Damian was quick to deduce what you wanted. If the sound you made was a little too soft, the next slap would come harder, ringing through the room in loud, solid notes. His hand must sting. He must like it, since he kept going with such revelry.

After the tenth, your toes were curled in and wounded tightly to your under-thighs, which were crossed, desperately clenching for any stimulation you could get. Delighted tears slipped from your eyes. Finally, you spat out your shirt and said with aching lips, “D-do you forgive me, daddy?”

Another vicious slap, this time on the left. Damian’s voice was sharp. “What did I tell you about calling me that, pet? Go on. Tell me precisely what I said.”

“I-if I called you that... I...” you squeezed your eyes shut, “m’ only supposed to say it when I really want to be fucked... when I want you ‘t make me forget my own name...n’ I do.” You sucked in a breath, “I took my spankings so well, Damian... please?”

He sipped his tea. He thought on it, turning the idea around in his mind. You could feel his thumb stroking your behind, no doubt admiring how red it was because of him.

“Ten more,” Damian said, his smile downright crocodilian, “and perhaps I’ll consider it.”

#damian wayne smut #damian wayne #damian wayne x reader #damian wayne x you #damian wayne x reader smut #dc smut #dc comics #dc comics smut #dc #robin smut #robin #user uncouth

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ragingbookdragon · 3 years

Text

You Light The Spark In My Bonfire Heart

Kyle Rayner x Batbro One-Shot

Word Count: 2.7K Warnings: Explicit Language

Author's Note: I HAVEN'T HAD ANY WIFI ALL DAY BUT NOW I DO AND this is my new obsession and pair and you can tear it from my cold dead hands. Enjoy! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

Kyle had an easy morning routine: get up, eat breakfast, brush teeth, workout, shower, drink protein shake, and draw. It was simple and effective, and helped him maintain a sense of normalcy that he didn’t always have when he was up in space. He typically started out with sketching small things, mostly faces and limbs from memory, the occasional suit redesign, then he’d get into the bigger works, drawing comic panels and the commissions he had. And while Kyle loved to be up in space, to be a Green Lantern, drawing felt like coming home to him, like it was the natural state. That being said, he didn’t love being interrupted when he was in the middle of something important—it was bad for the groove.

***

As the second round of knocking sounded on his door, Kyle grunted and stood from his desk, padding through the hallway to his front door; he flicked the lock and pulled open the door, surprise etching across his face when he saw the eldest Wayne leaning against the door frame—rather cockily, Kyle added, because the soldier’s arm was propped on the frame, the other stuck in the side-pocket of his dark tactical bomber jacket.

“Good morning, Kyle,” he greeted with a smirk. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

The Lantern blinked, shaking his head. “Uh, no, you’re not, (Y/N).” he looked at him. “What are you doing here?”

(Y/N) shrugged. “Had some business to take care of for my dad, and since I was in the area, I figured I’d drop by and see if you wanted to get some lunch with me.”

Kyle took a moment to lean out the doorway slightly, looking down the stretched hallway. “How’d you know where I live?”

“Please, a magician never reveals his secrets,” he deflected coolly, gazing at Kyle. “What do you say? Wanna get some lunch? I know a really good sports bar that serves great food.”

He looked back at (Y/N) and smiled. “Yeah. Let me go get dressed.”

The soldier merely winked in return and with fumbling hands, Kyle managed to shut the door before his cheeks burst into flames, hurrying back to his bedroom to pull together an outfit that would impress the man.

***

Kyle almost dropped to his knees when he saw the car parked outside his apartment building, and (Y/N) knew it too, because he chirped, “Gorgeous, isn’t she?”

He nodded dumbly. “Is this a McLaren 720S?”

“Mhm.” He opened the doors and slid into the driver’s seat, looking through the passenger door. “Coming?”

“Am I ever,” Kyle breathed, climbing into the seat, immediately running his hands along the dashboard and seat. “I’m in love.”

“Wait till you hear her purr,” (Y/N) said, closing the doors, and pushing the ignition. The sports car roared to life and he grinned at the way Kyle’s face melted. “Yeah, she’s a beauty.” He put the car in drive and looked through the side mirror, then pulled out onto the street.

“Is this one of your dad’s cars?”

“Nah, I bought this for myself a couple months ago.” He pulled the sunglasses from his t-shirt and put them on. “This and an Audi TT.”

Kyle huffed a laugh. “Jesus, you billionaires live it up, don’t you?”

(Y/N) smiled. “Hey, I live life in the fast lane. Might as well drive in it too.” He pushed a button on the touch screen and music filtered through the speakers, and Kyle’s face pinched in confusion. “What?”

“This isn’t—James Blunt isn’t the music I figured you’d play.”

“What’d you think I’d be listening too? Rock?” he chuckled, turning the volume down a bit. “Don’t get me wrong, I listen to all kinds of rock music, but I figured you’d want something easy rather than head-bang your brains out rock.” (Y/N) stopped at a red light and glanced over. “You can look through the artists on my phone if you want.”

Kyle shook his head, relaxing into the seat as the melody flowed through him. “No, I like this artist.” The soldier merely smiled in return, pressing the gas pedal again, and Kyle suddenly remembered something. “Speaking of artist, I saw the canvas in your bedroom the other day. Do you draw?”

(Y/N) hummed. “Not like you. It’s more of a pastime than a lifestyle.”

“You’re good at it. You’re painting your family in their suits. Details and designs included.” The artist regarded him with impression. “That takes skill.”

“I’d like to think I just have a steady hand and a lot of patience for stressful tasks.” (Y/N) turned the wheel, coming up behind a line of cars. “It’s an easy way for me to relax and mentally run through past events.”

“Like what?” Kyle questioned curiously.

(Y/N)’s eyes narrowed, but not in a loathing way, more of a thoughtful one. “Missions, conversations, things I could’ve done differently, things I will do differently.” He shrugged again. “Painting for me is just a time when I think about everything and nothing.”

“Well, you’re great at it, (Y/N).”

He snorted. “It’s just a bunch of paintings of my family and friends and military shit.”

Kyle blinked and leaned over. “Wait, is that painting in the den—”

“The one of the F-18 Super Hornet?”

“Yeah. You painted that?”

(Y/N) nodded. “Yep. I got Hal Jordan to take me up in one a few years ago and decided to commemorate the trip.”

“Wow,” the Lantern breathed. “I stared at that canvas for at least an hour the first time I saw it. I was just so blown away by how amazing it was.” He chuckled and shook his head. “And to find out, you drew it and not some world-famous painter.”

“Hey, I could be world famous if I wanted.” (Y/N) shot back, turning onto a less busy backstreet. “I just choose to retain my talents for family and friends.”

“Because of your job?”

“That too.” He agreed. “My squad and I take careful precautions to avoid our faces being seen during any missions for the safety of our families.” His face turned as solemn as his voice. “We do what we do to make the world safer. To keep our families and friends safe. It’s imperative that we’re not seen.”

Kyle cocked a brow. “But you’re Bruce Wayne’s son?”

“I am,” he nodded. “But I’m not as…out as the rest of my siblings. You’d be able to recognize them from press photos, but me not so much.” (Y/N) pulled into a parking spot outside the bar. “People only recognize me when they see the name on the credit cards. And I prefer to keep it that way.” A goofy smile crossed his lips. “The high life isn’t for me.”

“Says the man that drives a 710 horsepower sports car.” Kyle shot back with a grin of his own and (Y/N) stuck his tongue out as he turned the car off and opened the doors.

“Okay, I’m not actively in the high life but that doesn’t mean I don’t like luxury.” He closed the car doors and opened the front door to the bar for Kyle. “After you.”

“Thank you.” He replied, and walked inside, only stopping to turn and ask, “Do you want to sit at the bar or a table?”

(Y/N) tipped his head to the side. “I’m down with both, but I like the bar more.”

“Bar it is,” Kyle said and slid into one of the chairs, (Y/N) the other, and an older man wandered over.

“Well, I’ll be damned, is that (Y/N) Wayne I see?”

He turned, expression morphing into joy as he reached out and shook the older man’s hand. “Jack, it’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you son. How’ve you been?”

“Ah, you know me, sir. Nothin’ changing but the weather.”

Jack snorted. “And the desert where you dig sand outta your ass.”

(Y/N) chuckled. “Damn straight.” He looked at Kyle. “Kyle, I’d like you to meet Jack Dagher. He’s an old CO of mine.”

Kyle shook the man’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”

“It’s all mine,” Jack replied. “It’s been a while since (Y/N) brought anybody here.”

At that, Kyle turned to the soldier who was busy looking anywhere but his face. “Is that so?”

“Oh yeah. Sonovabitch doesn’t bring his dates here unless he really likes ‘em.”

(Y/N) coughed, glaring at the man. “Alright, we get it. Aren’t you supposed to be taking orders?”

Jack gave him a smug look in return. “What can I get you boys to drink?”

“I’ll take a beer,” Kyle said, and Jack rolled his eyes.

“No shit, kid. What kind?”

(Y/N) snickered as Kyle flushed. “Uh, a Heineken.”

Jack sighed. “And he had such potential. (Y/N)?”

“Gimme a strawberry daiquiri then water after.”

“Still ordering fruity drinks, huh?”

“Hey, they get you drunk faster than horse piss does, you old fart.” He shot back and the old man chuckled.

“Touché.” He slapped the bar. “I’ll bring those to you with an order of chili fries.”

“Thanks Jack,” (Y/N) smiled, watching the man walk off before turning to Kyle who was watching one of the baseball games. “You like sports?”

He tipped his head side to side. “I don’t not like them. I was never a sporty kid in school, but I like watching them.” He looked at the solider. “What were you like in school? Jock or prep?”

“Probably a bit of both,” he answered. “I played sports and had the highest grades.” Shrugging, he added, “And being a Wayne boosted me into the top tier of schools, so, there’s that. To be honest, I think all of us Wayne kids were and are a mixture of every stereotypical category.”

“I can see that,” Kyle laughed. “Especially with Jason and Dick.”

“Shit, I was talking about Timmy.” (Y/N) said. “That kid’s a grade A nerd.”

“He is, isn’t he?”

The two of them laughed and a woman placed their drinks in front of them, both giving their thanks as they took sips.

“Can I ask you something, (Y/N)?”

“My muscles are one hundred percent real. Especially my abs. Which you’re allowed to feel on in envy if you want.”

Kyle snorted into his beer, wiping his mouth. “No!” a few more chuckles passed his lips as he wiped the bar. “Are you…you know…?”

“A Leo?” (Y/N) offered with a smile, but his eyes told Kyle he knew exactly what the Lantern was asking, and he said, “I like the liquor, but I don’t care what label it has on it.”

The other man smiled. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“But if you want the technical term, I am pansexual.” He regarded Kyle a moment. “You?”

“Bisexual.”

His lips pulled in an impressed fashion. “Pretty fly for a bi guy.”

Kyle gaped at him for a moment, then shoved (Y/N) in the side as he buried his face in his arms and laughed. “You’re so stupid.”

“Ah thank you,” he grinned. “I get it from my old man.”

“You,” he cut himself off with a cackle. “do not get that from him.”

“Look, you know the big man in the suit. You don’t know the complete goober we live with,” (Y/N) chuckled, smiling at the waitress who placed menus in front of them; he picked his up and flipped through it.

“What do you recommend?”

“Hmm…anything with bacon on it.” He showed the menu. “If you like salads, get the steak and blue cheese one, it’s fantastic. Or if you’re more into tacos, they’ve got these awesome shrimp carnitas with chili peppers.”

Kyle’s brows furrowed as he looked the menu over. “What are you gonna get?”

“My usual. Tomahawk steak with garlic butter and mashed potatoes.” (Y/N) groaned and rested his head back. “I haven’t had a good steak in months, and I can just taste it already.”

“So, you’re a meat and potatoes kind of man?”

He grinned, keeping his eyes closed. “Unlike the cup noodle and Hawaiian roll man beside me.”

“Ouch. Hit me where it hurts.”

“C’mon Kyle, hit me with your best shot.”

“Better watch it, (Y/N),” he grinned. “You might be the next notch in my pencil case.”

“You’re such a nerd.”

***

“Holy crap,” Kyle breathed, hands resting lightly on his stomach. “I’m stuffed.”

(Y/N) moaned. “Stick a fork in me. I’m done.”

“Done?” their waitress laughed. “You haven’t even finished your desserts yet!”

“Oh God, don’t make me,” the Lantern whined. “I’ll explode.” He looked over. “(Y/N), take one for the team.”

“Pass,” he replied. “I think I’ve gained ten pounds just looking at the rest of the cheesecake.”

The woman laughed. “I’ll wrap the leftovers for you boys.” She wandered off, leaving them alone, and a blaring ringtone filled the space between.

(Y/N) jumped a little, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Do you mind if I get this really quick?”

Kyle shook his head. “Go ahead.”

He slid his thumb along the bottom and rested the phone on the bar. “This is Wayne.”

Captain! Finally. I’ve been texting you all afternoon.

“I know,” he snorted. “I’ve been ignoring it.”

Yeah well, the longer you ignore me the slower it takes for the radar dish to get replaced.

“What are you talking about?” (Y/N) asked. “I thought you’d procured one.”

I did. Then the buyer told me I wasn’t registered for official military hardware.

He frowned. “That’s odd. You did contact Thomas, right?”

Yeah. Beady eyed looking motherfucker who serves on the George Washington, right?

“That’s him.” (Y/N) hummed. “Tell you what, I’ll call him later this evening and get it all sorted out, yeah?”

Sounds good. Hey, did you take that guy out yet? Your little brother won’t stop texting me about some twinkie you’re into.”

(Y/N) froze as he felt Kyle’s eyes drilling into the side of his head and he stuttered, “Uh, Nadeen, now’s not the best time.”

What do you mean best—oh…ohhhhhh. I, uh, I gotta go, Captain.

“Yep. Bye.” He locked the phone and shoved it back into his pocket, refusing to meet Kyle’s eyes. “So…you catch the baseball game?”

“Which one of your brother’s thinks I’m a twink?” Kyle asked. “Wait, don’t tell me. It’s Jason, isn’t it?” he grunted in his throat, deadpanning, “I can’t believe my best friend thinks I’m a twink.”

“It’s Dick, actually.” (Y/N) grinned, turning to face him and he reached over, pinching Kyle’s cheek. “It’s just ‘cause you’re so cute and perky.”

The Lantern merely glared at him, griping, “I’m not as strong as you, put I can punch pretty hard.”

“Ooo, those are fighting words,” he shot back with a smirk, letting Kyle go. “Careful, I’m ticklish.”

“I feel like I’m talking to Hal.”

(Y/N) whined, all but collapsing onto Kyle who started snickering. “I’ve just been murdered.” He buried his face in Kyle’s shoulder. “Can’t believe I was just compared to Highball. The world must be coming to an end.”

“Oh, come on, you big baby. You’re not dying.”

“I am!” he turned his head, gazing at Kyle. “You’ll have to carry me to safety.”

“I don’t think I’m strong enough to carry you.”

“Are you calling me fat?”

“I did not say that.”

“You did, but in more words.”

“Alright, now I’m talking to Guy.”

“THAT’S SO MUCH WORSE!”

***

He leaned against the door frame as Kyle unlocked his front door and pushed it open, turning to look at him. “I had a lot of fun today, (Y/N).” he murmured. “Thanks.”

Winking, he replied, “I’m glad you did. I’d like to do it again soon if you want.”

Kyle nodded. “I’d like that.”

They stared at each other for a few moments and (Y/N) smiled, patting the door frame. “Well, I’d better be heading out. Have to get home in time for dinner.” He paused, giving the man a warm look. “Thanks for having lunch with me, Kyle.”

He’d not gotten two feet from the door when Kyle’s hand wrapped around his wrist. “Wait.” He turned and the Lantern leaned forward, pressing his lips to (Y/N)’s cheek. “Be careful on your way back.”

“I will,” he murmured, watching Kyle wave and disappear into his apartment, the door shutting behind him.

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neokonewman · 2 years

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Do you think Faith, the hand maiden girl who Rapunzel called a "dud" when considering her as a replacement for Cassandra's position as her Lady in Waiting should have had a bigger role in the story? I have seen fans say she should have been given a bigger role and become a friend of Rapunzel. Personally she never really made a big impact on me and I don't know why some fans have fixated on her. Faith seemed pretty one note to me. What could they have explored with her?

Pretty good question honestly. I’m of the opinion that any character can be interesting if they are meant to be. Like, if given enough focus, Faith could have been another good female friend for Rapunzel to work off of. Not only that, but since the show was leading up to Cass ultimately leaving Corona, it would have been nice to know that Rapunzel still had a close female friend at her side while her best friend went off to see the world.

On the other hand, it is pretty dang clear that the show had no interest in making Faith an actual character at all. In fact, I think the only reason she was even given the littlest of screentime in S3 is purely just so Cass can steal her identity for the day in Once a Handmaiden. Honestly, that is made even more likely considering we didn’t even get her name until that episode purely because Rapunzel and Eugene HAD to call Cass something while she was pretending to be Faith.

I guess in the end, I’m of the camp of “Faith needed more screentime,” but not so much because I wanted her character around more, but because she could have given an actual female friend possible closer to Rapunzel age to bond with. Honestly, for a girl’s show, Rapunzel only really hangs out with a bunch of older dudes or little kids with the sole exception being Varian who is still quite younger than her. Plus, Rapunzel was being a big jerk by calling Faith a “dud” just because she didn’t want to go into a filthy tunnel filled with bugs and bones.

As another side not that kind of applies to this, TTS had a horrible habit of putting Cass on a pedestal for being “not like the other girls” to the point that it feels like if you aren’t a rude tomboy like Cassandra, then you aren’t worth Rapunzel’s time. Rapunzel actually befriending Faith not only would give her more than just one female friend for the entire show, but it would also make Rapunzel not seem so narrow minded when it came with other girls that aren’t just Cassandra.

#tangled the series #rapunzel’s tangled adventure #tts #rta #rapunzel tts #rapunzel rta #faith tts #faith rta #also i guess having faith around could have explored more of the staff of the caslte #considering she has been a maid there since before ever after #please having the perspective of a maid who is close to having a nervous breakdown could have been interesting too #considering how old lady crowley is #personally tts needed more girl characters period #neo muses #neo answers #anon ask

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artxyra · 4 years

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post hawkmoth gabriel is outed as hawkmoth and no one except mari knows adrien is chat mari gows to batboys and one day adrien comes to visit her and the batboys think that adrien is here to get revenge on mari but imagine their shock when mari squeals and jumps into his arms and hugs him like theres no tomorrow (this isnt my idea but i wanted to see your take on it)

Note: So lack of motivation is a bitch and I’m surprised that writing and rewriting this fic worked. Hopefully, this stands up to your expectations.

“Breaking news, Adrien Agreste, the former head model of Gabriel Agreste Fashion, was seen walking down the streets of Gotham, New Jersey late last night. Tune in later for more Gotham gossip…” The volume slowly becomes muted leaving the person holding the remote sitting in silence.

Soon a series of noises, such as items hitting the floor, a body struggling to move fills the room ambiance sound. It wasn’t long before a phone’s ring tone goes off. More rustling is heard. The music stops, then there was a pause.

“Yeah, I just watched the news. So, what’s the plan. I already have Barb on speed dial.” A male’s voice states into the phone. This is Richard “Dick” Grayson on the four-way call with his brothers.

“Demon Spawn’s in charge of keeping, Pixie, busy. She cannot know that he’s in town.” Jason states before hearing his younger brother tsking at such an easy request. Of course, he could keep his fiancée busy in the meantime.

“Of course, I can keep my beloved busy, you imbeciles.” Damian scoffs at his brothers. In fact, his beloved was most likely in her studio right now working on a commission.

“Good, good, keep her away from any source of news. We all know how Gotham Gossip works. The rest of you meet me at WE and we’ll figure out a way to get Agreste out of here.” Tim explains to which everyone mumbles their agreements and slowly hang up on one another.

“What was all that about?” Kori asks coming out of the bedroom, rubbing her eyes.

“Oh, you know, the same old same old.” Dick smiles at his wife who raises an eyebrow but shrugs instead and goes into the kitchen.

“Ready for some more gossip Gotham! Former son of the Parisian terrorist was found shopping at Coccinelle de Pixie storefront that was recently vandalized not long after with the words ‘Traitor’ spread painted in black across the window…”

Timothy Drake sat in his executive chair nursing a new cup of steaming coffee. Gotham’s Gossip playing on a radio that he soon turned off and shakes his head. All the more evidence to place Adrien Agreste behind bars just like Paris did his father. For years, everyone thought Adrien was in cahoots with his father in terrorizing Paris, Adrien made no statement and he stayed away from the media.

“Mr. Drake, your brothers are here.” His assistant announces through the coms. Tim quickly replies knowing that his brothers are seconds away from breaking down his office doors.

“You heard the latest gossip?” Jason practically demands. Tim could feel the anger rolling off his predecessors. “Of course, you did, you wouldn’t be listening if you hadn’t. I swear if Gordon doesn’t find the culprit, I will.” Jason slams his fist against the wooden desk, to which Tim simply takes a sip of his coffee and stare directly at his brothers.

Tim would never say it aloud, but he was surprised to see Damian especially after he was given the job of keeping the person that claim as their sister busy for the evening.

“I don’t care what methods you use Todd, as long as the person—” Cough, Agreste, cough, “is behind bars and locked up with the worst of the worst.” Damian gave his brother the answer he needs.

“Back to the issue at hand.” Tim sets his cup down. “Babs sent me Agreste’s itinerary from his hotel location to any phone history. So far, we have gathered he is in contact with someone under the name Buginette, unfortunately, that number is tied to a burner. They are making plans that seem on the verge of making Bean suffer.”

“Great, we have our main suspect and we can’t even call his accomplice,” Jason growls, he hates feeling helpless but that only has so much time before Adrien could make his attempt.

“I wouldn’t say that; Dick you’ll be tailing Agreste, from his GPS location, he should be passing by WE any minute now. Use this and the GG, as we all know she’s in for the latest scoop.” Tim hands Dick a device with a beeping red dot moving. Dick examines the devices before placing them in his pockets.

“We have until eight o’clock tonight to detain him. This Buginette and he plans on meeting at an unknown location. We will intercept them either both or right on.” Tim then takes another sip giving his siblings time to process any information that he just gave.

“Just in, GCPD found a bunch of dead ladybugs in front of the Chordate Hotel, the hotel that Adrien Agreste is rumored to be staying at. Is this retribution to the future Mrs. Wayne as we all know how much she loves ladybugs…?” The broadcaster’s voice carries over the car’s radio.

Damian Wayne could help but tighten his hands around the steering wheel. Someone was after this fiancée and he felt helpless about it. Marinette doesn’t deserve any of this. She has too much to worry about with the wedding and her growing fashion empire.

He pulls up in front of their shared apartment and immediate parks into his parking space.

“Angel, I’m home.” He calls out tossing his keys into the decorative bowl that on the end table next to the front door.

“In the back room.” A female’s voice calls back. Damian smiles practically visualizing the smile on his fiancée’s face.

Walking past a series of boxes, Damian makes it to the back room. Marinette is kneeling next to a mannequin, hand sowing the lace fabric into place. Damian couldn’t help but watch her work in awe. They have known each other for years and even today her working still amazes him.

“Are we still going over to Bruce’s tonight?” Marinette asks looking up briefly to acknowledge her fiancé and give him a smile. Damian was quick to answer her with a yes to which she nods and turns her attention back to the gown. “I should be done in an hour. I also have a couple of stops to make before we head over. Or do you wanna carpool with your brothers while I drive?”

Ding, ding. Damian knows that the messages coming through are from his brothers. “I’ll be fine; getting a ride with Grayson.” He answers before grabbing his phone and unlocking it to view the messages.

“Dami…Dami…” Damian turns away from his phone to stare into the blue eyes of his fiancée. “I thought I lost you there for a minute; you didn’t respond when I had asked whether you’re going out tonight for patrol?”

“Tt, I am going on patrol with the others tonight. Doing a run before and after dinner.” He answers hoping that she doesn’t question it. Marinette narrows her eyes before shrugging and continuing with her sowing.

Quickly getting changes, it wasn’t long before Damian receives a message from Dick stating that he’s out in front. Damian gives Marinette a goodbye kiss and exits out of the apartment.

“Wha’sup Gotham. Tonight’s segment is saucy. With Adrien Agreste out in the public, the batbros are out and about. I swear I just some red outside the studio window. Now onto the sauce—”

“Are you seriously listening to the crap with the mask on?” Robin questions Red Robin, who waves his in his defense. “Should the target get here by now?” He looks over the building to view the streets.

Behind the two vigilantes, Nightwing and Red Hood appear on the rooftop.

“Agreste should be arriving in five according to his GPS location.” Nightwing states and a ringing sound goes through their coms.

“Nightwing is right. Though is it for certain that Mr. Agreste is the person behind the attacks against Miss Marinette?” Agent A’s voice rings through the coms. The four brothers look to one another all being on the same wavelength. They all think that Adrien Agreste is behind the attacks. There was no other reason to explain it. He arrives in Gotham and then there are attacks against Mari through her storefront and favorite animal/insect.

“We’re sure, Agent A,” Tim responds as the device on this wrist beeps. At the same time, a rental car pulls up across the building and parks. Adrien Agreste gets out of the car and straightens out his collar.

“Target is in place. All we’re missing is this Buginette person and we’ll move in.” Red Hood pulls out an AK-47 and position it to lock on Adrien. He wasn’t going to kill the blonde male, maybe just skim a little off the top or scare him shitless.

Down below, Adrien pulls out his phone and calls someone. Immediate the batbros knew that he is talking to this Buginette person, it’s not because Red Robin has the recording playing as well.

About five minutes later, a familiar dark car pulls up. Robin looks at the car in suspicion. This car was the same model that he has and shares with Marinette from time to time. From the corner of his eye, he could see Red Hood etching his finger closer to the trigger.

Adrien runs over to the car shouting “Buginette” happily to the person inside.

The car door opens and immediately they hear a gunshot. The door closes and Adrien jumps back. Red Hood side-eyes his brothers as Robin silently hopes that he is wrong for once.

This “Buginette” person finally gets out of the car to reveal a Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who was no doubly staring in their direction.

“Well shit.” Red Hood groans just as the rest of the family facepalm or are into much of a shock to do anything.

“Hold on for a second, Adrien,” Marinette states holding out her hand as her other hand goes to grab her phone.

On the rooftop, Red Hood’s phone was going off. None of them wanted to answer it. In fact, there were certain that they didn’t want to answer. Instead of taking it like a man, the brother quickly gathers their items and disappear off the roof.

“Do I even want to know, what’s going on, Buggy?”

“No, Kitten, you don’t wanna know.” Marinette huffs and places her phone back in her purse. “I have an hour to hour to kill before I dinner and you and I have a lot to catch up on.” Marinette wraps her hands around Adrien’s shoulder, who smiles sheepishly at the dark-haired woman. “I hear that you and—”

“Mari!” Adrien interrupts blushing a deep red to which Marinette laughs and opens the door to the building.

An hour later, Adrien stands behind Marinette, who was on a warpath knocking against the large doors to Wayne Manor. They could hear furniture moving, people yelping, and a cough. Alfred stands at the with a greeting smile like no other, though Adrien could sense the double meaning.

“Good evening, Alfred, how are you?” Marinette greets with that sickly-sweet smile; Adrien knows all too well. Marinette never the one to keep the deadly appearance apart of her getup but she knows how to use her best aspects for the worst.

“Good evening, Miss Marinette and you is your guest?”

“Oh, silly me, this is my brother in everything but blood, Adrien Dupain-Cheng.” Marinette gestures for Adrien to follow. She places her jacket and purse down and examines the room. Of course, the couch was being used as a blockage.

“Ooh…boys?” Marinette sings walking past the couch, setting each and everyone right side up.

In the dining room, the four men all look to one another scared to utter a single sound. They did not want to deal with Marinette, especially Jason.

“Whose bright idea was it to allow Hood to shoot at Adrien?” Marinette’s voice echoes throughout the manor’s first floor. Bruce, who was sitting at the head of the table raises an eyebrow at his sons. He wasn’t in the bat cave when they returned but they returned as quickly as they left.

Dick mouths “you don’t want to know” to his father figure and begins to sweat bullets. “Whatever happens, tell Kor’i and Mar’i that I love them.” The oldest adopted Wayne states as Marinette makes her way to the archway leading into the room.

“You don’t need to worry about that Dickie.” Marinette smiles, “I’m after Jason.” At the mention of his name, Jason darts out of his seat and through the window. Alfred and Adrien watch the scene play out in two different emotions. Adrien was curious while Alfred was just done with everything.

“I’ll place the order for a new window sir. Is any hungry for dinner?” No one answer to afraid to make them the next target to Marinette’s anger.

“Dinner sounds nice, Alfred.” Marinette smiles sending more chills down the remaining three batbros. “So, everyone, meet Adrien, my brother. Apparently, someone tried to kill him this evening, should I know something about that.”

“I’m more concerned as to why you were using a burner phone to contact Agreste.” Damian murmurs to which Marinette heard him and was immediately behind her fiancé.

Lowering herself to make sure her lips were closer to his ear, she whispers, “Why would it matter, Demon?” She leans back and gestures for Adrien to take a seat. “Adrien here was in hiding from the press and it was my idea from the start.”

Damian chokes on air, the feeling of death forever lingering. He knew there was a reason why he loves Marinette, and this was one of them.

“Is it safe to come in?” Jason’s head pops up only to get greeted by a Batarang. “Got still not safe, you know what I’ll just go eat out.” Everyone turns to Marinette, who was still showcasing her sickly-sweet smile.

“Anyone want to join him?” She asks taking the empty seat next to Damian, who was spatting himself down making sure he had no weapon on his being that she can reach.

“No, we’re all good here, um, Adrien tell us about yourself?” Tim ends the harsh silence quickly and for once he was actually awake.

Adrien smiles and begins to talk about his latest adventure.

Moments later, Alfred returns with dinner solidifying tonight’s adventure.

Much, much later…

Damian and his brothers came out of their stupor of last night’s event. “Wait then who was vandalizing Mari’s store and image?” Tim asks before pressing a cup of coffee to his lips.

Before any of them to grab their devices to hunt down the real culprit, Marinette walks into the living room. “It was an old employee of mine. He only did it because someone—by the name of Lie-la—offer him some big money. He never received it so he came clean.”

Marinette then picks up the keys from the decorative bowl and leaves her place.

The three older brothers turn to their youngest, “You better not divorce her.” They all state at the same time. Damian only nods, agreeing with his brothers for once in his life.

Tag List: *View my Tagging System guidelines for how to to be properly tagged or removed.

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #daminette #ml crossover #dc crossover

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pl-panda · 4 years

Text

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 7

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At least their purchases were found undamaged. That was a little upside to the disaster of the supervillain attack. Marinette suspected Tikki might’ve had something to do with this, but didn’t comment. Police kept the rope dart as evidence, but they promised to return it as soon as it was possible. Marinette gave Gordon her number (after the commissioner was vouched for by Damian) and number to her mother. It was a possibility that she would’ve been called to court to testify. She was a prime witness and while her involvement declared only self-defense, Gordon told her in all honesty that the lawyer might try to put some blame on her. It was a sad reality, but Damian reassured both his beloved and the commissioner that they would be prepared. Waynes kept a contingent of lawyers not without reason.

The teens were picked up by Alfred before the press figured out who the mysterious hero of the day was. Marinette really didn’t need more lights on her. It was enough that she agreed to make her relationship with Damian Wayne public at the gala. Objectively, she knew it was a better option than for the press to learn from students of Gotham Academy. Inside, she was dreading the event anyway.

When they arrived at the manor, Sabine, Tom, and Bruce were waiting for them. The girls launched themselves at the woman and she pulled them into a hug. Damian followed slowly, not revealing any emotions.

“I received a call from Jim,” Bruce began once they were behind the closed doors, “something about Firefly and brave teens stopping the attack.” He looked at all three of them with a judging glare. It wasn’t that he was disappointed, but it made the teens feel under deep scrutiny.

“It was all me!” Marinette confessed immediately. “He stopped us from escaping and we were with a bunch of kids. I just acted and I might have kinda accidentally… defeated him.” She spoke very fast.

“Don’t worry, Sweetie. We’re not angry or anything.” Sabine quickly reassured her while sending a glare at Bruce.

“Well… Yes.” The billionaire nodded slowly. “But you could’ve been more careful.”

“Ridiculous!” Chloé stared at the Wayne patriarch. “Utterly ridiculous! Of course, Dupain-Cheng could’ve just run away and left those poor lost kids to die, but she stayed.”

“I didn’t mean…” The man tried to speak, but the blonde ignored him.

“But no! Mr. Batman thinks that suddenly protecting others without the suit is somehow wrong. I didn’t see you on the scene at all. There was Red Hood, but he arrived there only after Mari already took out that flying pyromaniac.”

“I just…”

“So don’t go off on us preaching safety when you have your kids running on the rooftops every night.”

“But…” Bruce had no idea what just happened. He only wanted to congratulate them…

“I did get all the fabrics I will need, but we didn’t get to eat.” Mari decided to change the subject and spare her father-in-law further humiliation at Chloé’s hands.

“The lunch will be ready in five minutes. You can take it in the dining room.” Alfred spoke from behind Bruce, startling the poor billionaire. It was apparently not his day.

When the group moved there and took their seats, joined by Cass, who was the only other permanent resident of the Manor, Marinette decided on the next subject.

“And how did the Class trip go?” She asked her mother with a bright smile. The woman sent her a tired look in response.

“They are monsters. I sympathize with their parents if that’s how they act every day…”

“They can’t be that bad, love.” Tom tried to defend the kids, but several stares from around the room would kill him if it was possible. “I meant can. My English is bad. I meant can.” He raised his hands in surrender.

“That Lila girl is indeed a talented manipulator when she is not going overboard. If I didn’t know her, I might’ve actually fallen for her lies. And she even doesn’t resort to lies anymore.”

“What?!” Marinette was glad that she only got the lunch served and didn’t yet eat anything. “No way!”

“Yes. It looks like she established herself as an internet star to the point where she is somewhat famous.”

“Tt. She is still a harlot.” Damian muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.

“The modeling for the Gabriel brand and Ladyblog. Outside of Paris, it would make her into a star of some internet super-hero show in addition to a front-page model!” Marinette was suddenly enlightened. “I can’t believe her lies actually worked!” She collapsed in her chair, resigned. “Guess lying did work for her in the end…” Her face took a look of a beaten puppy.

“Say a word, Angel, and we can make you into three times the star she might be,” Damian spoke and Chloé nodded in agreement.

“It’s not that!” The bluenette tried to protest. “I just… Her lies hurt people. I told her that it wouldn’t work in the long run, and she proved me wrong ten times over…”

“Lila… bad.” Cass frowned. “Hurt Nettie.”

“Cass…” The girl tried to say something, but her cousin continued.

“I will… hurt Lila.” She stated confidently.

“No!” Marinette protested. “I’ve got enough trouble stopping Damian and my mom!”

“She is bad,” Cass stated confidently.

“Cassandra.” Bruce glared at his daughter, but before he could explain things to her, Sabine intervened.

“Sweetie, I appreciate you wanting to help Mari, but we must also respect her wishes. Even if I already have a place chosen… Never mind.” She smiled brightly before anyone questioned her.

The whole table exploded into laugher while Damian and Cass smiled wider than usual. It was just such… a familial scene. Like they weren’t a bunch of superheroes, but a happy family. Even if the talk was about murder.

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In a dark, damp room two people stood opposite one another. The male figure had a dark purple suit with the signature butterfly brooch pinned to the top of the shirt. His chest was protected by two black flaps that looked a bit like the moth wings. In his black gloves, he held a cane topped with a purple orb. The face was covered by a simple domino mask that did nothing to hide the mane of blonde hair on top of his head.

On the opposite was a woman in a dark-blue dress that hugged her figure very tightly. The clothing ended barely above her bust, continuing with a sparkly net that was almost translucent. From under the cut starting just below the belt, her legs were also visible and covered in the same sparkly net. The blue/purple of her skin clashed slightly with the dress, but the sparkles of the fancy net managed to offset it to the point it was barely noticeable. Her deep-blue hair was pinned back into a rather messy bun with two long strands framing her face.

“Are you sure?” The young man asked.

“Don’t worry,” she dismissed. “My grandma reassured me that this is perfectly safe. Besides, it’s too late to stop now.” She grinned and pointed her folded fan at the ground. When she unfolded it, several candles lit with pink flames, bathing the room in an eerie light. The light reached to three bodies laid in circles drawn with their blood. The two figures in the center were also in a runic circle.

“The bond will not interfere with my Princess?”

“Whatever that vile American did to her must have hurt her badly. You do want to save her and lift the curse, right?” She grinned when there was a new fire in his eyes. “And I told you about my demands.”

“I’m still not convinced.” He glared at her. “And I told your grandfather that his demands are ridiculous.”

“They are my demands.” She corrected him in an amused voice. “If you don’t want my help…”

“Fine. I will do it.” He suddenly closed the distance between them until they were face to face. “But don’t even try to trick me. I’ll know and I will end you. Nothing will stop me from getting what I want.”

In response, she gave him a quick peck on the lips. Immediately, the boy recoiled. She just licked her lips. “Whatever you want, beloved.”

“Ugh. Let’s just get done with this.”

The candles went out one by one when the female chanted in Latin. When the twelfth and last one died out, the room was once more dark. Then, the runes lit and red light enveloped both of them. She reached to the center and grabbed a small goblet. After taking a sip, she handed it to the boy.

He hesitated for a moment, but then also took a sip. They were both enveloped in deep scarlet light until it died out and both of them fell unconscious on the ground.

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Marinette and Chloé had to go with the class for the next trip, which was to the Botanic Garden. Damian and surprisingly Cass also joined them. And this was how the class almost signed their death warrant and handed it to Sabine.

As soon as the guide started speaking about various plants they had there, Alya and Lila started gossiping in the back.

“...told you she was a…”

“...I can’t believe he would…”

“...and that black-haired…”

“If it was up to…”

“I bet she just…”

“Maybe it’s a thing here?”

Finally, Sabine had enough. She asked the guide for a five minutes break to rein in the misbehaving group. Caline tried to protest, but she was silenced when the older woman looked her in the eyes with fires of fury.

“Listen up, because I’m not going to be repeating myself.” She started. “Cassandra is my niece, who lives in Gotham. By a lucky turn of events, she turned out to know Damian and agreed to accompany me and Marinette today.” She glared at every student in the group. Sabine noted that Alix stood alone in the back, separate from Max and Kim. “She is a precious little bean and if any of you dare to say anything bad about her again without even trying to talk to her first, I will personally see to it that your trip will be very-” She made sure to put emphasis on the word “-unpleasant. And if you even think about hounding her, I will see you suspended.”

“Now… Sabine, I think you’re…” Madame Bustier tried to defuse the situation.

“Caline. It is, and always will be for you, Madame Cheng. I’m on this trip to make sure they behave. If you’re not going to help me, try not to make my job harder than it already is.” She huffed and looked back at the class. “Am I understood?”

Several barely audible “Yes” could’ve been heard if someone tried hard enough.

“Good for now.” Sabine looked at their guide. “I’m sorry I had to interrupt.”

“No worries Mrs. Cheng.” The woman chuckled. “Anyone who tries to badmouth Cassandra or anyone from her family deserves your wrath.”

“Good. We can continue.” And so the group moved on.

Lila decided to change the subject of her lies and now kept talking about how good friends she was with Damian Wayne, or rather her Damiboo. It was clear that their guide wanted to add something, but Marinette’s boyfriend made a gesture to stop him. The grin on his face made it clear he had different plans.

After they finished the trip, the class was placed in the bus with Sabine while Damian and the girls were left free to wander around. Some tried to protest, but one murderous glare from Madame Cheng shut them up hard.

“Why Marinette and Chloé are allowed to wander around with some boy, while we are confined to the Hotel!?” Kim protested.

“Yeah! Lila can’t even meet her boyfriend!”

“It’s simple.” Sabine cut them off. “Marinette and Chloé are staying with Damian’s family, which is their host family for this trip. You will be meeting your host families after the new year.” She couldn’t stop herself from rubbing some more salt into Lila’s wound. She might be an adult, but it doesn’t stop her from being petty sometimes. Especially when someone decides to speak badly about her favorite (and hopefully only) niece. “If your… Damiboo was missing you so much, you could’ve asked him to invite you. Cassandra said he is attending Gotham Academy. I’m sure he would love to have you stay with him at Wayne Penthouse.”

“Oh! He did want me so badly with them, but we agreed that it would be better for me to get to know some of his friends.” Lila answered quickly and Damian had to stiffen a groan. How could someone be so dense?

“Suuure.” Sabine grinned. “Then please don’t complain about the situation of your own making.” It was clear that the discussion was over. Damian, Marinette, Chloé, and Cass were left to their own device.

“Chlo, I love you like the best friend you are,” Mari started when they were alone, “but Damian’s got a date planned. So bye!” She said before running off with her husband, leaving the flabbergasted blonde and the noirette alone.

“Ice cream?” Cass pleaded.

“Fine. I guess I can hang out with you then.”

“Ice Cream!” The other girl almost jumped in the air.

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The couple walked through the gardens in silence, holding hands and enjoying the cool air around them. The temperature was warmer than outside, but still rather frosty. Marinette, feeling bolder, dragged Damian’s hand down slightly and pulled him closer to her. She cuddled into his shoulder and smiled. After dealing with the class, it was nice to have some peace, only the two of them.

“So…” She started with a grin. “Wayne penthouse?”

“Tt. For your information, it’s where Drake and Brown live.”

“But Damiboo! You wound me! And I thought we could stay there together.” Marinette did her best Lila impression.

He tried to scowl, but the end result was an unholy mix between scowling and grinning.

They wandered around, laughing at occasional jokes and generally enjoying the time. At some point, Marinette dragged him to a hot-dog cart to enjoy what she called a ‘taste of America’. He couldn’t help but smile at some of her antics. They stopped for some coffee to rest their legs. He allowed her to talk most of the time, listening to all the details of her new outfit for Jagged Stone.

“...so I decided to replace half of the usual silver studs with golden ones. Or rather gold-colored. He doesn’t actually like the wealth display that much and is all for replacing it with cheaper ones. When his producer one time tried to force me to make him everything with the actual gold, Jagged signed it and immediately donated it to The Gotham Orphanage.”

“I remember.” Damian’s memory flashed him an article about it. “And don’t be modest. It held your signature too.”

“Well… He wanted to throw it to Fang first. It was so much not his style.” She smiled. “Bob almost had a stroke when he learned that he still had to pay for it full price. I think it was actually the first commission I accepted that was not priced like clothes for friends. I did deduce the cost of materials that he provided though.”

“Habibti. You’re amazing.”

She blushed at the compliment. “I’m not! I’m just a normal girl.”

“An amazing normal girl.”

“How can you be so smooth and so socially awkward at the same time?!” She squeaked.

“Because people are fools. You are perfection incarnated.”

“Stop it!” She giggled. “I’m not! I’m clumsy and awkward.”

“It doesn’t stop you from being perfect.” He countered. Before she could protest, he lifted a cookie and put it in her mouth. She bit it and munched it in silence. When she swallowed, he continued feeding her. In retaliation, she picked some whipped cream and gave it to him. They ended up feeding one another and laughing.

It was slowly getting dark, so they started walking toward where Alfred would pick them up. They still had some time, so Mari dragged Damian into the music store. There was a whole stand for Jagged Stone discs.

Marinette, feeling devious, pulled out a marker and signed two before handing it to Damian. He thought for a short moment before making a small heart next to her name and putting down his autograph too. They hid the discs behind others and moved on. In the end, Marinette bought some ballet music for Cass that Damian told her she didn’t have yet. The bluenette liked her cousin and wanted to get her something for ditching her with Chloé

When they exited the store, Alfred was waiting there, ready to take them to the Manor. The two sat in the back of the limousine in silence, cuddled together. By the time they arrived at their destination, Marinette had dozed off. Not having the heart to wake her, Damian did his best to gently lift her and carry her to her room. Somewhere along the way, she clutched to him tightly and didn’t let go even when he placed her on the four-poster bed. He sighed. He didn’t know if he would survive the teasing he would receive after someone finds them. Scratch that. Sabine would kill him before that.

Still, he would have to wake her up. With one more look to make sure the doors were closed, he lied next to her and stared up. He could at least stay awake, right?

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Masterlist // Next

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sideblogformindtrash · 4 years

Note

Can we have Blue realising what has been done to him? Like, remembering what he was like before getting into pet industry, and understanding what he's actually been through? Non-canon, of course. Maybe telling Warren something about it, even.

CW: Dehumanization; Creepy comfort; Gaslight;

Warren kept walking a few meters before realizing Blue wasn’t following. He turned immediately, afraid that he had strayed away again… But he was just looking at a building. He walked back to the pet, placing a hand on his shoulder

“Blue? Darling? Remember what we talked about right?” They had a long chat about Blue’s tendency to wander off before, after a little incident on a park “You don’t want to get lost. Especially not on a different city…”

…Blue said nothing, just kept staring at the building. He could understand if it was a colorful, maybe grafted building, but it wasn’t anything special, just an old gray construction with several offices and services inside. He wasn’t sure why Blue would be interested on that.

He takes one of the pets hands and squeezes it, pulling him away. He has work to do.

And, his pet follows but is unusually quiet during the rest of the day. He sits near Warren’s bags, looking down, running fingers over the plush’s hair. The day goes smoothly due to that, but he is very worried. That’s not Blue’s normal behavior.

He decides to get him some hot chocolate before they travel back to home. The pet holds it, eyes closing while he feels the warmth, but he barely takes a sip. He is quiet all the way, eyes locked on the road outside. When they travel, Blue always makes a point of listing every. Single. Thing. He can spot. It can be annoying, but Warren is used to it by now and the silence is disturbing.

…He helps the pet out of the car and goes to store his equipment. He finds the pet sitting on the sofa, eyes watery and lost. This is also weird behavior. Blue doesn’t go on furniture unless invited. His tears aren’t the hysterical ones either. He cries with anger and grief.

…Warren sits by his side, fixes his hair a bit and cups his face. His reaction to this is more or less normal, as he leans into the touch, but his eyes dart around as if seeing Warren for the first time.

“Darling, what happened?” he frowns “You are being weird since… Since we saw that building today”

Blue seems to think, considering if he should speak or not. Warren squeezes his face gently, trying to reassure it. It works.

“I…hm… I u-u-used to w-w-ork there”

I instead of it. Interesting. Warren wouldn’t mind letting the pet use regular pronouns, but it’s weird to see it happen out of sudden. Something is off. He takes a sip out of the chocolate. It’s definitely cold already, but he still has the cup half-full.

“Darling… You are a pet, dear. You never worked”

That’s what he was told anyway. Maybe he had, but remembering that wouldn’t help anyway.

“No, I, I, I did. I, I, I, hm, I h-h-helped… P-people” he squints his eyes as if his head hurts “I-i-I, t-t-t-old them not to, not to s-s-sign t-t-to bb-b-e, be pets and, and, and a-bout p-p-places that, that c-c-ould help t-t-them i-i-instead a—and… If, if they, they were in d-d-danger we, we would h-h-elp…”

…That’s a lot. He thinks the building had a bunch of social services. But it’s weird to think someone who worked on that would end up as a pet.

“Blue dear… Aren’t you just confused? You wouldn’t be a pet now if that was true, would you?”

“I, I… Hm…” he looked at its own hands, taking a deep breath. He takes his hands to his head, pressing and hitting himself, eyes squinting so hard, as if any of that would make him remember “..A-a-… I, I, I don’t know. I, I…t-t-there was, lots, lots of p-p-people and, and signs… a-a-and dogs, p—p-ppolice…Scary… Very…”

…He pulls Blue closer into a hug, kissing his forehead gently. That always seems to calm him down a bit.

“I, I, s-sorry I, s-s-shouldn’t…”

“It’s okay” He says, scratching behind his ear “You don’t need to worry about this anymore, you know? Even if it was true, you are here now, right? You like it here don’t you?”

“A-a-a-h…y-yes?” Blue closes his eyes slightly. He seems to calm down, but isn’t done yet “…T-t-t-his is, is fucked up. W-w—what, what t-t-hey p-put me t-t-rough… -t—tt-hey wanted me, me to forget… To, to forget that I, I…”

“…Yeah. It was. You have been through so much baby…” Warren sinks his fingers on the pets hair, gently caressing it and trying to calm him. Blue isn’t supposed to think about those things, but he has to agree he has been through a bit… too much “But it is okay now. It’s okay.”

“I, I… I…I love you…” Blue whispers, those dazed eyes barely seeing Warren. But he likes to hear this. He smiles at his pet and kisses his forehead again.

“I love you too, my little Blue. You don’t have to worry about those pesky things anymore, okay? I’m here for you…”

“B-b-b-ut… I, I, I had, had, had a-a, life. I, I c-c-an’t just… just…”

“….Just stay here and be my pet?”

His eyes darted everywhere, a hint of fear.

“I… I’m a person…”

…He smiles. A pet should never say something like that and Blue knows it. He seems scared that he will be punished for it, searching Warren’s face for a hint of violence. He isn’t planning to. Blue is just confused now and hurting him won’t make things any better.

“…Oh dearie. I don’t know what happened but you will forget it soon. You know how confused you get sometimes…” Warren gently rubs circles over his forehead “…You really think you could go back to your life? You can’t do anything without help anymore Blue. Maybe that’s why you decided to become a pet to begin with…”

Blue’s tears row freely through his face. There is a hint of relieve there too, and even more admiration to his kind, kind Master. Warren thinks Internet Fucker would’ve cut his tongue out for saying something like this.

“I, I, I g-guess…” he looks up to Warren studying his face, trying to make sense of what he was just told “y-y-y-ou, t-take care of, of me, r-r-ight? You, you keep m-me safe”

“…Always” And Warren taps a kiss on Blue’s lips “You are my darling pet.”

“Y-yours...”

…He did wonder if he was being too soft with his pet for him to start getting these ideas… But Blue needed that patience. Warren decided it was probably just the building that sparked some un-wanted memories… And made a mental note to avoid going there again.

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

Text

TTS Songs Ranked Worst to Best

Someone asked me to rank my fav and least fav TTS songs a while back, but I’ve since then relistened to the soundtrack and there’s a whole bunch of songs that just forgot about, so here’s a more accurate ranking now that the songs are more fresh in my mind

32 . Life After Happily Ever After (Reprise)

This song is infuriating, because the finale is infuriating. Listening to this song just makes me angry all over again because it reminds me just how unsatisfying the ending to TTS was. I wanted to turn it off at several points. I barely can get through it despite it being so short. It doesn’t help that the soundtrack leaves all the dialogue in there and fails to actually end the song. It just cuts off before the final note.

31. Hook Foot’s Ballad

Does this even count as a song? Why is it here on the soundtrack but not the Hurt Incantation? Did Menken really waste his talent writing a joke and did the showrunners really waste money and limited resources on this?

30. Friendship Song

Bland, boring, and pointless. It was clearly written as a marketing stunt for the radio disney charts and not as anything to do with the plot of the series. They just throw it up on screen to fill out the running time and don't even let the whole song play through. It’s pitiful.

29. Waiting in the Wings (Reprise)

I didn’t think much of the original song one way or the other, but the reprise is soooo dumb. The plot twist it introduces winds up ruining the whole show and sabotaging both Cassandra’s and Rapunzel’s characters. It’s not even a nice sounding song on it’s own. The kid’s voice is irritating (who I’m sure is doing her best, but really little kids shouldn’t be made to sing professionally as a general rule) and the melody just as bland as the first time it was played. The only reason to like this song is if you’r a mega fan of Cassandra’s or her VA, which I am not. (Note: this is not a criticism of Eden Espinosa, I just don’t happen to follow any of the VAs in this show)

28. Through It All

I like the instrumentals in this song, and that’s about it. Everything about this song is wrong. It doesn’t fit the story, it’s a misuse of the cast and songwriters, it’s a waste of valuable screen time, the melody is dull, and the dang soundtrack had to throw in that lame dialogue about ‘greatest threat ever’ at the beginning. If you want a pump up song in your story then you got to earn it. You can’t just tell us things are bad, you got to show it. A joyful horseback ride and everyone sitting in a bar safe and sound isn’t threatening or depressing enough to warrant a cheering up session. Plus the song itself doesn’t add anything to the overall story.

27. The Girl Who Has Everything

Sometimes I think the writers were willing trying to sabotage themselves. It’s as if they were determined to make the only two main female characters in the show unlikeable bitches in season three. Don’t believe me? The creator Chris has said this song only exists to highlight how much easier Rapunzel has things than Cass and went onto say that Rapunzel was in the wrong during their conflict because ‘she held Cassandra back’. (Oh yeah she totally ‘held back’ the grown woman who left on her own accord, returned on her own accord, and then assaulted and tried to murder a bunch of people for no reason of her own accord.) But this song does succeed in furthering season’s three narrative that Rapunzel is a spoiled selfish brat. Shame the story fails to address this setup and never has Rapunzel learn to be a better person. Rather the narrative bends over backward to tell us how special Rapunzel is without any sense of self awareness and this song falls into that same trap; making it both irritating and pointless.

26. Listen Up

Yeah, I talked about this on my salt marathon, but I just don't like this song very much. The melody is fine but the lyrics are a real miss in my mind. It doesn’t help matters that the song is indeed pointless in the grand scheme of things.

25. Livin’ the Dream

This is much on the same level as Listen Up as it features the same problems. It doesn’t add to the narrative and the lyrics kind of let it down. I placed it higher just because I like the melody a little more.

24. More of Me

This song is a lot like the Friendship Song in that it was created to be an end credit song for the pop charts and you’d be forgiven in forgetting it even exists. However, it at least got to actually play all the way through. I think this song was a real missed opportunity. I honestly believe that it should have been the opening theme song of the show instead of Wind in My Hair. It’s more built to serve such a purpose and it’s a waste of resources not to actually use it. Alternatively, I would have accepted it being reworked into the actual series as a character song. Especially since we’re missing a song in season three due to budget cuts.

23. Wind In My Hair

Speaking of theme songs, I think I would like Wind In My Hair a lot better if i didn’t have to listen to it every episode. On its own it actually has a lot of things going for it; a nice melody, interesting instrumentals, good singing, ect. Unfortunately it’s just over exposed, and none of those elements lend themselves naturally to an intro song for a tv show. In fact the theme song feels really out of place and is edited oddly to fit the shorter intro.

22. Wind In My Hair (Reprise)

Honestly the theme song is mostly comprised of this reprise, but it has the opening instrumentals from the OG song frankensteined onto it. This means that the version that plays before every episode is on fullblast all the time to keep the energy up, but that’s not how the song is suppose to go. The actual reprise that plays in the pilot builds to a crescendo, starting soft and melancolony and getting louder and more hopeful and determined. It sounds a lot better in full because of that. It’s still too overexposed though. Both these songs would probably be higher on the list of not for the theme song version.

21. With You by My Side

This song is fine. It’s nothing special, but it’s not bad either. What knocks it down the list is the fact that Lance isn’t in it, despite Lance being right there. Like don't bother hiring a famous Broadway singer if you’re not going to have him sing! But that speaks more to the poor writing of season two than anything else. This song also doesn’t really add anything to the narrative as, contrary to what the writers intended, it doesn’t actually enhance the emotional impact of Cassandra’s betrayal later in the episode. The song itself is just tacked on and doesn’t take the opportunity to lay down any foreshadowing for that plot point.

20. Next Stop Anywhere

Another perfectly serviable song. It’s not bad but nothing outstanding. It gets the job done. It’s also really ho-hum and the soundtrack keeps all the unneeded dialogue, which is a pet peeve of mine.

19. Waiting In the Wings

Despite it’s hype, I never thought much of Waiting in the Wings. It’s got nice instrumentals and Eden Espinosa gives it her all in the singing department. The problem is it’s too generic. It’s a bare bones basic ass ‘I want song’. Cassandra's movations are weak and unsupported by the narrative, the melody is boring, and it honestly doesn’t add anything to her story. I mean it should, it’s her character solo, but because she’s written so poorly the song just winds up undermining the character in the end. All I’m saying is that, this is not the song from season two that I would have nominated for the Emmys. But it’s still Alan Menken, it’s still nicely performed, and given the rest of the competition for that year, it did deserve to win.

18. If I Could Take That Moment Back

This song is also pretty generic, but it’s less boring than I See the Light, (yeah, I said it, I See the Light is boring) so that’s a win in my book. Ergo this holds the title of the only New Dream duet that I enjoy. But there’s better stuff on this list.

17. Next Stop Anywhere (Reprise)

Well no, I take that back. The reprise of Next Stop Anywhere is also technically a New Dream duet. It’s still not anything amazing, but it works for what it is. Plus, Adria’s opening dialogue in the soundtrack version doesn’t bother me quite as much as some of the other dialogues choices that were kept in.

16. Stronger Than Ever Before

I really enjoyed this song in the moment. It’s catchy and fun, and it finally has Lance doing something rather than ignoring his existence. However it is borderline unnecessary in terms of story placement, and I’m slightly mad at it now that I know that we could have gotten a Rapunzel and Varian duet but it was scrapped for this instead.

15. Crossing the Line

Keeping with the theme of ‘songs I have conflicting emotions about’, we have Crossing the Line. This song is confused. It starts and stops, the melody isn’t clear, the orchestration is playing tug of war with the singers for dominance, and it’s basically Alan Menken and the show’s creators ripping off Frozen. (I guess he’s kicking himself for leaving that particular project?) But it’s interesting. I never heard anything quite like it. It’s memorable even if it doesn’t fully work. It’s got these interesting bits and pieces to it that just never quite comes together as a whole. Some of the lyrics are some of the best Glenn Slater has ever wrote and is far better than the story actually surrounding the song. Yet there’s other lines that are total cringe. Sometimes the song is bold and catchy and gets you all hyped up, and then other times its limp and staggering and feels so awkward to listen to. Yet it’s not boring or generic and so I have to place it higher than the rest of the songs that’s come before. (Also, there’s some amazing orchestral covers out there that really pulls together the various parts really well, just fyi)

14. Nothing Left to Lose

I really don't like this song. I’ve been one of its biggest critics ever since it was leaked by the marketing team earlier this year. And yet... I can’t in good conscience place any lower on this list. All of the problems I have with it are the exact same problems I have with Crossing the Line. It’s confused, the various pieces don't line up, the instrumentals are competing with the vocals, the song’s progression is weird with it’s constant key changes, some of the lyrics are good while others are absolute shit, ect and so forth. It also actively works against the story it's trying to tell. The song wants you to sympathize with Cassandra, but her lines are as shallow as a puddle and makes her look like a sociopath. Especially when she’s physically attacking Varian through out for no reason. Also neither character learns anything from the exchange and it fails to impact the story. By all accounts this is a bad song. But I’m Varian trash. There I said it. You happy? Varian’s parts in the songs are fine, good even, and the song is anything but bland. I would rather listen to a mess then be bored to tears by a competent yet standard four chord pop song.

13. I’d Give Anything

This song is nice to listen to. Story wise it absolutely sucks and shouldn’t have been in the finale at all. But it sounds pleasant. This is one of those songs that could pop up randomly on the radio and I would just think it it a nice sad break up song. I can’t say that about some of the other misplaced songs in the show. This one however, you can very much, absolutely divorce this song from the narrative and it would be fine. Now that’s not good writing, and it’s very much a waste of limited resources, but I’m rating the music here first and story second.

12. Buddy Song

The Buddy Song also absolutely did not need to exist but it also sounds nice. Plus, it makes use of Lance so I’m a little more lenient towards it. I can’t however place it higher since it really is just Alan Menken ripping off Alan Menken. Like, I would not be at all surprised to find out that this was originally a deleted song for Aladdin or something.

11. Bigger Than That

What can I say, Lance just gets good songs. When the show bothers to give them to him. Unfortunately, it’s not the best placed. It kind of interrupts the more important drama of Be Very Afraid, and probably should have been saved for a later episode. Especially since it hinges on a plot point that is contradictory to Lance’s character. We should have gotten a Varian and Rapunzel duet here and given Lance his own episode in the second half of season three. This song could have easily been refitted into being a bonding moment for him and the girls. That would also have filled out the season’s original songs to the usual eight instead of only seven.

10. Life After Happily Ever After

Now we’re getting to the good stuff. The top ten. The best of the best. This song makes the cut for three reasons. 1. It lyrically and musically interesting 2. It does the job of furthering the story and the characters and 3. Eugene’s part is so damn good. Like this song could have easily fell down into the ranks of ‘fine but generic’ if it wasn’t for the bridge with Eugene. That puts it over the top and to my mind makes it better than anything from the OG film. (well almost anything, Mother Knows Best is still great) This is the barometer by which I measure all of the music in the series. Is it better or worse than Life After Happily Ever After? Because this is the level that I equate good musicals with. What keeps on the tenth spot and not higher is the dialogue that still left on the soundtrack and the lack of a Cassandra introduction. That and also the rest of the songs are just flat better.

9. Hurt Incantation

Hurt, Decay, Reverse, whatever you want to call it, this was such a cool fucking concept. One that was utterly wasted by the show. I place this so high because it just sounds awesome! It looks good too, and it offered up so many possibilities from a story perspective. What lets it down is the lack of follow up for it and it’s too short. There’s needed to be another verse. It also should have been on the actual soundtrack instead of Hook Foot’s Ballad. (The Heal Incantation also was sung in What the Hair, but I’m not counting it since it was written for the film)

8. The Girl Who Has Everything (Reprise)

I hate the initial song and the set up that it took to get here, but I love this reprise. It’s perfect. This is what the story needed more of. Rapunzel taking her life into her hands, and her proposing to Eugene would have been the perfect capstone for her arc. In fact I’m angry we didn’t actually get that. There’s absolutely no reason why Rapunzel couldn’t have done so and we could have had her and Eugene engaged during the second half of season three. How much better would have it been if Cassandra threatened their wedding plans and that’s why they couldn’t go through with it until after the series ended? So much more tension that way.

7. I Got This

This is a really good song that actually futhers the characters and the narrative. Moreover it’s refreshing to see the heroine not be perfect and to fail sometimes due to her own inadequacies. It’s just a shame that the series didn’t follow through with this set up, but I appreciate the attempt all the same.

6. Set Yourself Free

This is the only song in the series that’s an actual satisfying pay off for anything. Music wise it’s nothing too special, but in terms of context it just works. We were sorely deprived of such resolutions and songs with actual meaning in the show.

5. View From Up Here

This song is too good for the episode it actually appears in. We needed something like this back in season one to introduce Cassandra with. It also sadly doesn’t fit with the wider narrative after season three. However I shall still appreciate it as a ‘what might have been’ type song.

4. Let Me Make You Proud

The only reason why this song isn’t higher is just overexposure and I’ve no one to blame but myself for that. I’ve listened to this song way too many times. As such it tends to alternate between this, View from Up Here, and the next song on the list. But make no mistake it is glorious. Fantastic instrumentals, set up, and of course amazing vocals.

3. Everything I Ever Thought I Knew

Yes, I know this plot point didn’t lead anywhere, but it works for this song at least. Also Eugene’s VA is a really underrated singer. He sounds nice and he emotes really well. Though I’ll be honest, this jumped up to third place because it was fresh in my mind after listening to the soundtrack before making this list. I’ve always liked the song and I do rate it highly, but it can change places with Let Me Make You Proud and View from Up Here at anytime depending on my mood.

2. Let Me Make You Proud (Reprise)

This song is heartbreaking! Story wise it probably shouldn’t exist because it gives away the twist too soon, but who cares, it’s awesome! Varian’s arc is the most compelling in the show and the only thing that saves TTS from falling into mediocre obscurity; and it’s songs like this that help make the arc stand out even more than it already does.

1. Ready As I’ll Ever Be

I said it before and I’ll say it again; Ready As I’ll Ever Be is the greatest thing Alan Menken has ever written in his entire career! If you know anything about the multiple award winning songwriter then you know that is no faint praise and I do not dole it out lightly. This song is the reason why this show even has a fanbase. People are still getting into the series because of this song. And no matter how many times you listen to it just rocks! It’s complex, layered, moody, and with a fantastic beat and energy. The performances are wonderful and the instrumentation glorious. It belongs in the hollows of Disney’s greatest hits and not regulated to a spin-off tv show that failed to make its money back. I weep for the lost potential that this song and this show had. It hurts to know that so many people will never see this flash of brilliance that has come out of the House of Mouse, will never know the wonderfulness that is Varian. Ah, ‘c'est la vie’, I suppose. Tangled the Series got what it deserved, but it's crew did not. While I can not in all honesty recommend the series in full; I do sincerely urge any Disney fan to check out the songs at the very least. Especially this one. And that’s it. There’s my official ranking of all the songs, and I hope those of you read my Tangled reviews appreciate the hours it took into making this.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #varian #rapunzel #eugene #cassandra #lance #alan menken #Disney #disney music #disney songs

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eyes0ny0u · 4 years

Text

Pastel Mafia

@quagmireisadora finished Chapter 2 - FINALLY! TT ^ TT

CHAPTER 1: A ROUGH DAY

CHAPTER 2: WHEN THE GOING GETS ROUGH

Kibum sighed as he entered his apartment. Leaning against the door as he took off his shoes. He glanced at the microwave clock he could see from where he stood: 2:18 am. He's got maybe three hours before he has to get up for his part-time job at Albert's, a fancy bakery in the upper east side, at the opposite end of town. He would love nothing better than to sleep in tomorrow, but Albert's paid the best out of all his part-time jobs, and he got tips.

Right now, he needed all the tips and extra hours he can get. His last roommate had bailed on him, leaving him with an entire two-bedroom apartment to pay. He had begged his landlord to let him pay for his half of the apartment and will get him the rest later.

Kibum remembered the call from St. John's collection department, he still owed them a portion of last month's installment. His fist clenched at the embarrassment of admitting to a total stranger he didn't even have five dollars to his name. His last one disappeared when he lost his wallet.

Kibum trudged to the tiny kitchen and pulled out the leftover Chinese from his bag, thankful that the shift manager had let him take home whatever portions were left. He popped the take out carton into the microwave and looked around his apartment, with its peeling paint and cold air - he had barely turned on the heater since winter began. He was sleeping with thick clothes on, the thermostat just above '5' at the dial.

Kibum's eyes landed on the syllabus stuck to the fridge. The tears exhaustion couldn't squeeze from him poured at the thought that he will have to stop school.

God, he was tired.

So tired - but life didn't care.

Kibum wiped his cheeks. Squaring his shoulders as he pulled the warmed up Chinese and dug in. No use in indulging his tears. He didn't have enough food to drown his feelings.

- O -

"Carlos Amarillo at 57, was confirmed to have passed away by his son, Gian Amarillo today. No details were given to what caused the business tycoon's sudden death. Amarillo, who was the head of the Amarillo Group conglomerate, was a noted businessman and humanitarian in the area -," Jinki tuned out the late night news, lips tightening at the praises.

"What a bunch of hypocrites," Taemin sneered at the TV. "Not a month ago, they wanted Amarillo's head for Hawthorne Bridge!"

"Had they pushed a little further, they would've found proof of involvement," Minho interjected.

"They would have gotten paid off or threatened," Jinki said, reviewing the report on the shipment of electronics that arrived yesterday. "Or found their contact dead."

"True," Minho agreed, swirling the scotch he had been nursing since the news started. "What do you think Junior will do?"

Jinki leaned back, loosening his tie. He'd never worked with Gian before. All he knew about the new head of the Amarillo was that he was in the business, and he was ambitious.

"I heard Gian was banished from the main family for running that side deal with Salazar," Jinki said, referring to a semi-prominent Mexican cartel. "So, I'm not sure if he's going to declare war or be open for business."

"My money is on declaring war," Taemin said, slurping an oyster. "If he wants to gain the respect of his father's men, he'll be doing just that. I mean, you did when you took over the business."

"Yeah, but Gian has a hater with his father's numero uno," Minho said, leaning over Taemin's oyster bucket to reach for the charcuterie board. "Rumor has it Vincenzo Benotti might be the old Amarillo's love child."

"Really?" Jinki asked Minho. "I've never heard of this."

"I'm not surprised," Minho shrugged before popping a cracker piled with pate and cheese into his mouth. "It's parlour game rumours; some drunken Amarillo lackey may have blabbed over drinks or said out of spite. You know how it is."

Jinki turned to his computer and pulled up the file on Carlos Amarillo. Under the 'Known Associates' directory, was a picture of Vincenzo. The man had black hair and brown eyes. Just like Amarillo Sr. Being Italian that didn't mean anything. But something about the slant of the man's jaw reminded Jinki of Carlos.

"Minho, investigate Vincenzo," Jinki ordered. "I want to know everything. What town his ancestors were from to the brand of their favourite red wine."

Jinki wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but it was worth investigating. Lovechild or not, Vincenzo might be vying for the top seat. Gian Amarillo could need some help with ensuring his position in the organization. His deal with Carlos Amarillo may not be as dead as he thought it was. On life support, but it looked like it could be revived.

He just needed to convince either Vincenzo or Gian that he would make a good ally despite the little fiasco last week. What're a few bullets between business partners? In their world, it was practically considered a nicety.

"By the way," Jinki suddenly remembered his pet project. "What do we have on the guy who saved my ass last week?"

- O -

Albert's was, as usual, teeming with yuppies, grabbing their trendy breakfast before heading off to work. Kibum rang up orders as fast as he could, but his mind still on the unpaid bills he needed to take care of. Kibum glanced down the line, trying to determine how much longer the rush was going to last. With detachment, he noted the quality of apparel Albert's clientele sported and envied the financial security, all of them exuded.

"A croissant and a large of your medium roast, please," a woman with flawless makeup and Gucci bag said, barely looking him in the face as she pulled out a Valentino wallet. Kibum punched the order in; $15.08 for Anna. A breakfast for Anna was Kibum's meal budget for 3-days, courtesy of his employee rate at the Dong Fan Chinese restaurant.

"An espresso please and the fruit and protein box," man in gleaming Rolex and Balenciaga briefcase ordered. His suit was probably Italian, ranging around $5,000.00 to $8,000.00, depending on the make—the leather briefcase around $2,000.00. The Rolex was at least $3,000.00. The guy's entire ensemble would have more than paid off his grandmother's hospital bill.

Sir, would you mind pawning me your Rolex so that I can get the hospital off my back? Kibum silently asked the yuppie who didn't bother leaving a tip.

"The yogurt parfait and medium-light roast, please," a red-head regular asked. The diamond engagement ring on her finger was so big; it was at least 2 carats with a platinum band encrusted with tiny diamonds. Kibum's entire year of schooling was sitting on that woman's ring finger.

Would you mind lending me your ring so I can enroll? Kibum asked the woman in his head as he flashed his practiced smile when she dropped a toonie in the tip jar. I would like to make more of my life than bussing tables and waiting on people. Please.

The next customer was dressed in a simple navy blue pinstripe suit. One could say the man didn't belong in the "fashionable" line. Working at Albert's for the past three years had taught Kibum how to size people at a glance. Gauging where they belong in the socio-economic ladder had become his weird expertise. Though the outfit was simple, borderline plain, the perfect fit of the shoulders and elegant drop of the knife-edge crease of the pants said tailored. The understated silver - most likely platinum - watch and leather loafers screamed old money.

"The blueberry muffin and a tall medium roast, please," the man said, handing Kibum a fifty dollar bill.

Kibum barely stopped an eye-roll. C'mon, dude, it's barely 8 am. Have a little sense, and don't drop a bill so large so early in the morning. "Sir, do you have a smaller bill?"

"No change?" the man asked an eyebrow raised.

"Unfortunately," Kibum said with a fake apologetic smile.

"Keep the change then."

"Sir, your total is $12.30," Kibum exclaimed.

"I don't have a smaller bill," the man said as he placed the bill on the counter and walked away.

"Sir -," Kibum called out, but the next customer stepped in front of him.

Kibum punched the payment on auto-pilot and dropped the change in the tip jar, almost feeling nauseous. That was hella over the top, and somehow assholish in its extravagance. But he was thankful for the extra cash he was going to get.

After his shift at Albert's, Kibum rushed to the bus stop for his afternoon shift at Dong Fan. The bus was pulling away from the curb when he arrived. Kibum gritted his teeth against the frustration surging through him. He was going to be late for his shift and that meant income loss.

Kibum took a deep breath to stifle the string of curses rising from his chest. He took out his phone to call the restaurant but noticed he had an email from St. John's. He was tempted to ignore it but tapped on the icon anyways.

Kibum blinked at the message. He scrolled up again to check the sender. Yeah, there it was, St. Johns Hospital. But something was wrong because the email contained a receipt for the amount he owed the hospital.

Confused, Kibum clicked on the phone number in the signature, brow furrowing as the call went through. After being transferred to accounting he asked about the status of his account.

"Your account is up to date."

"Excuse me?"

"Your balance was paid for in full yesterday."

"By whom?" Kibum asked still in disbelief, afraid to believe. "I didn't make the payment," Kibum said. "No one else would make the payment."

"Payment came in electronically from Jjinggu LLC," the agent answered. "It could be one of those angel-sponsors."

"What's an angel-sponsor?"

"They're anonymous individuals or organizations who will settle random accounts as part of their charity work."

"And you don't know their names at all?"

"No, I'm sorry. Payors are not required to identify themselves."

"Ok... but you're sure, they made the payment against my account?"

"Yes, sir," Kibum heard the operator's smile. "I'm one hundred percent sure, Mr. Kim."

"OK," Kibum whispered. "Thanks."

"Was there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that's it."

Kibum disconnected the call, reeling from the relief. Tears pricked his eyes as the weight of the debt lifted off of his chest. Kibum cupped his hands over his phone, holding it against his forehead.

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," Kibum chanted in whispers, collapsing on the bus stop bench, trying to contain the tremors running through his body. Glad for a very long time he was alone.

#i did a thing #man what a struggle #why can't I finish chaptered works?!#how do y'all do it?#SHINee #jinki #onew #key #minho #taemin #fanfic #pastel mafia

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violetsmoak · 5 years

Text

Philtatos [5/?]

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20101543/chapters/47690671

Blanket Disclaimer

Summary: During a patrol where Red Hood and Red Robin cross paths, Jason is infected with the blood of the Eros, the ancient God of Love, who informs them that they must track down his missing bow and arrows, or Jason will go slowly mad with an obsessive desire–for Tim. Though overwhelmed by the sudden attention being paid to him, Tim sets to work trying to solve the case, before Jason succumbs to madness. In the meantime, Jason discovers that there’s more than godlike powers at work here, as well as a legacy that reaches back through the sands of time.

Rating: PG-13 (rating may change later)

Beta Reader: None at the moment.

JayTimBingo Prompts This Chapter: #secrets

First Chapter

Author’s Note: Someone mentioned in the comments about the characters ages. As I mentioned at the beginning of the fic, this story mostly follows the New Earth canon. I disregarded anything in the New 52 that directly contradicts that. So the ages of the characters are about as follows: Bruce: 44 Dick: 25 Cass: 20/21ish Jason: 20 Tim: 17 Damian: 13 Ages have been approximated based on clues from the comics. I may eventually tag this as Underage, but it depends on whether I decide to write a certain scene or not.

________________________________________________________________

Tim’s first instinct is to go after Jason, which is why his irritation is entirely justified when a caped shadow detaches from above and lands in front of him in a crouch, blocking his path.

“Father says to check to the condition of Hood’s victims, then wait for medical units,” Robin informs him.

Tim frowns. “Good for him. You don’t need two people to do that.”

He begins to head off again, only for Damian to bar his way again. “Obviously. But he was adamant about it.”

“And since when do you listen to everything he says?”

Damian’s mouth thins, nose wrinkling as it does when Tim does something irritating to him, like exist. It takes him a moment to catch up.

“Wait—he meant me?”

“He meant both of us, for whatever reason is beyond my comprehension.” His permanent scowl slides more to the side of a pout, suggesting he isn’t pleased with the directive. “He was determined to reach Todd on his own when he requested help.”

The kid sounds like he is confused and disapproving all at the same time, which Tim can kind of agree on.

Reaching out to Bruce for help is not something he saw coming. Though, maybe he should have, since Jason always did have a unique ability to act outside the parameters of his own established patterns. It’s why it was so hard to pin him down when he first returned to Gotham.

It’s practical, too, I guess.

Jason’s the sort of no-frill logic kind of guy. He knows out of everyone in the family, the person best suited to take him down if he needs taking down is Bruce—and much as he cares about him, Bruce will do it, too.

He really must be rattled to go with that option.

Tim’s heart thuds a little in sympathy at that, understanding exactly what Jason’s afraid of.

Before he died, he acted rash and could be violent, and was already justifying why certain kinds of people should be forfeit their lives. That conviction magnified when he came back to life. Killing another person, that might not have been something outside the realm of possibility—in a purely utilitarian way. But this—the idea that he might lose control of himself to an extent where he has anything in common with the creeps he’s killed?

Tim wants nothing more than to go after Jason himself, to assure him that he’s nothing like those criminals. But he also recognizes why it’s not a good idea right now.

Besides, B has him. Just have to hope their…usual issues don’t get in the way.

“I’m going to find the kid that was here,” Tim tells Damian. “Got to make sure he’s okay, maybe explain what happened.”

“Whatever,” Damian replies, toeing at the faintly stirring bodies.

Nice working with you, too…

Tim finds the teenager three blocks away, ducked into a corner to avoid the wind, sucking down a cigarette from shaking hands. When Tim rappels down in front of him, he gives a curse and jumps backward, nearly upsetting a trashcan.

“What the hell, man?” he demands.

“Sorry,” Tim replies. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t go anywhere.”

“Why, so you can have a go at me to?”

“I need to know what happened back there.”

“Twenty bucks.”

If this were a gangster or some rogue’s henchman, Tim would probably just beat the answers out of him. But he recognizes that this is a scared kid, who needs to feel safe right now, and who needs to feel like he’s in control. Given the background Tim suspects, it’s not something he gets very often, and will determine how helpful he could be in the future.

So, he counters, “Thirty, and you also give me your name.”

The kid snorts, but nods; as soon as he pockets the cash, he says, “Matt. Smith.”

“Nice to meet you, Doctor,” Tim deadpans, and the kid smirks, but he lets it go. It gives him something to call him, helps ground himself in the fact this case is now involving actual people.

“Okay, Matt. Tell me what went down.”

“Usual thing. Some guy wanted to, uh, show me somethin’ in the alley. Turned out he had a bunch of buddies waitin’. Pretty sure I’d’ve gotten worked over if it weren’t for the guy in the helmet showing up.” Matt hesitates here, his eyes flickering with vulnerability in a way that tells Tim he hasn’t been on the street very long. “After he wiped the floor with ‘em, he went weird. Got real quiet, and he started lookin’ at me like…” He shrugs. “Like, I couldn’t see his face, but it felt like the way some of the junkies look when they think you’re easy pickings. And…”

The kid actually shivers here.

“Man, I thought he was supposed to be cool?” he snaps. “That’s what the girls all say. But if he’s a creep too, why d’you Bats let him go around like he does?”

“He was exposed to a mind-altering substance some time ago, and it’s messing with him,” Tim replies. “He’s not entirely himself right now, but I’m sure he’ll be fine after a bit of detox.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Matt continues to look distrustful. “We done here?”

“Yeah, we’re done.” Tim digs into his belt and passes him a card for the Neon Knights foundation. “Take this, too. It’s not just for younger kids, you know. There’s a program set up for teens and young adults that have aged out of the system.”

“So?”

“I’m not saying you have to go there or even asking you to trust them. But for tonight, at least, a bed and a hot meal are probably a safer bet than working a corner.”

Matt’s shoulder slump a little in defeat, and he looks away. “Whatever.”

“Second person that’s said that to me tonight. I might develop a complex being brushed off so easy.”

The teen’s mouth twitches.

Good sign. If you can still smile so easily, it’s not to late for you.

There’s buzz in his ear and Tim’s comm crackles to life. “B is bringing Red Hood back to the Cave.”

“Without a fight?” Tim asks, pressing the speaker to his ear.

“Hood asked him to sedate him.”

Shit.

If that’s not an indicator of how dire he thinks the situation is! Something like this only happens in life or death situations involving the whole Family, or the Joker. Or both.

“I’m on my way.” He turns back to Matt. “You going to be alright?”

“I’m always alright.”

That startles a chuckle out of Tim; he makes a mental note to track the kid down at as soon as he’s got a better idea of what’s going on

Hurrying back to Damian, Tim finds him watching with folded arms as an ambulance loads the last of the injured and unconscious men through their doors.

“Father, the clean up is finished. I am returning.”

Batman’s voice echoes in both their comms. “No. Continue with your patrol. Red Robin, he’ll stay with you for now.”

“Excuse me?!”

“What?!”

“Rendezvous at the Nest afterward and stay there until you receive further instruction.”

He signs off.

Damian and Tim exchange looks that are easily interpreted even behind their dominos.

“He knows that’s not happening, right?” Tim says. “You’d probably set my place on fire.”

“And I’m sure it would be an improvement. But no, it’s not happening.”

“Good. Glad we established that. How are you getting back to the mano? B brought Hood back in the car, so…”

“Obviously, with your bike.”

“Oh, obviously.”

“You would take issue if I stole a car. And you intend to return to the Cave anyhow.” Tim glares but doesn’t correct him. “I’m driving.”

“Fine.”

“Tt, you people and your antiquated—wait.” Damian sounds like his brain has to reboot. “Really?”

“You have an obsession with sharp objects, you’ve tried to kill me more times than Hood has, and you hate me. You really think I’m letting you sit behind me?”

Damian snorts. “That’s the first intelligent thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“That is, of course, assuming you can reach the gears.”

He’s kind of surprised he doesn’t get punched for that one.

It’s an awkward right back, made even more so when Tim insists they duck into a treelined cove on the way to the manor and hide the bike to change into their civvies.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“B’s probably keeping Jason in a holding cell,” Tim explains, “which is on the same level as the garage. We’ll be seen.”

“So?”

“So, you want to get sent off to bed like a naughty kid before you even step foot in the door, or do you want to go down the stairs and find out what’s going on before B can stop you?”

Damian thinks it over, and nods. “This is tedious, but very well. We’ll do it your way.”

Tim exhales a bit at that. Though none of that was entirely a lie, he’s more concerned that if Jason’s woken up, he might see Tim coming in through the parking area and get upset.

“Look at us getting along,” he murmurs as he struggles out of his boots.

“This truce is temporary at best. If you continue to patronize me, I will have Titus defecate in your shoes.”

They arrive in the manor, slipping in through the family entrance, where they are greeted by Alfred.

How does he do that?

It’s a question Tim is pretty sure will never be properly answered.

“Master Timothy, Master Damian—what a novelty, you two entering the house together.”

“We didn’t enter together, Pennyworth, he followed in my wake. As usual.”

Alfred and Tim watch him head toward the main study.

“He’s in a good mood tonight,” Tim remarks.

“Indeed. He spent the afternoon following his studies playing Cheese Viking with Master Colin.”

“Oh, well, the world will be forever grateful.”

“I am considering a gift basket.”

“Can we get some coffee downstairs, Alfred? I have a feeling tonight’s going to be a long night.”

Actually, I have a feeling it’s going to be a long week…

“Of course, Master Timothy.”

“Thanks.”

When they get down to the Cave, it’s both a relief and not to see that Bruce isn’t waiting. Mostly because it’s Dick sitting in the big chair at the meeting table.

Crap. Crap crap crap, what is he doing here?

“Richard,” Damian says, a frown in his voice. “I was under the impression you were on your way back to New York.”

“O caught me on the way, said there was a Family emergency and I might need to hang around for a bit. Here I was hoping she meant something else by that, but…”

Tim’s brain stumbles to come up with a reason why Dick shouldn’t be here. Either this will become the stuff of teasing material for years to come, or Dick will be disgusted at the possibility of Jason entertaining any kind of feelings for Tim.

He has no idea which option is worse.

“B’s handling it,” Tim says. “Maybe you should do a quick patrol, though, since we’re all back here right now.”

“It’s covered. O said Batgirl and Signal are covering any gaps in our routes tonight.”

And Cass is in Hong Kong, which is at least a bit of good news.

He has a hard enough time hiding his feelings for Jason on a good day; if she were here while all of this is going on, there’s not a prayer he gets out of it without someone knowing.

“So, who’s going to fill me in on what’s actually going on?”

“I will.” By now they’re all conditioned to ignore Bruce’s sudden appearances. He’s still in the suit, but the cowl’s off, granting Tim a good view of the glare he’s levelling at his younger sons. “You two aren’t supposed to be here.”

“Sorry. I didn’t care,” Tim replies, his discomfort starting to crack his usual composed mask.

“And I am your partner,” Damian adds. “I will not be kept out of matters because of some misguided attempt to pander to my age. I had thought we came to an understanding on this, Father.”

“This isn’t about that.”

“Then what is it about?” Dick demands; he’s getting impatient.

“Jason’s been infected by a toxin that manifests itself by triggering obsessive behaviour.”

Dick processes that, then furrows his brow. “Are we talking Sheldon Cooper obsession or Alex Forrest obsession?”

“At this point it could be either,” Tim answers, and gives a quick rundown of everything Cassie told him.

“And who exactly is the poor fool Todd’s supposed to be fixated on?” Damian asks, looking repelled at the very thought.

Tim battles down his own embarrassment, reasoning that everyone needs to be on the same page if they’re going to help Jason, and gestures wearily at himself. “That would be me.”

Silence rings.

Damian tilts his head to one side. “Are we positive we shouldn’t just allow this to play itself out?”

“Damian!” Dick snaps, scandalized.

“Well, the outcome benefits everyone. Todd gets to drag the object of his interests somewhere that’s elsewhere, and we get rid of Drake.”

“It’s getting really old, Gremlin,” Tim sighs, rubbing his temples.

“No one’s getting rid of Tim! And Jason’s not…doing that!” Dick snaps. “We’re going to fix this. Don’t worry, Tim, he’s not going to get a chance to do anything to you this time.”

Tim shoots him a sharp look. “You know it’s not his fault, right? It’s like being dosed by Ivy, only stronger.”

“If what Wonder Girl told you is true, though, the infection may capitalize on feelings that are already there,” Bruce says. “And the fact is—”

“Jason’s tried to kill me before? Yeah. I was there. But it’s been years, and things have been getting better.” Everyone looks skeptical at that, and he scowls. “They were.”

“Be that as it may, you shouldn’t be here. Damian either.”

“Todd’s not obsessing over me, thank god for small miracles.”

Bruce ignores the byplay.

“Since you are here,” he says, turning to Tim. “I want Eros transported to the Cave. We can better interrogate him here and find out if he’s holding anything back. I don’t trust that he isn’t manipulating you both.”

“Oh, I know he’s manipulating us,” Tim replies. “I also know you won’t be able to interrogate him the way you want to, not with his powers slowly growing more out of control—and yes, they are doing that, don’t make me explain how I know that.”

“How do you—?”

“Nair, Dick. In your shampoo,” Tim snaps, jabbing a finger in his brother’s direction without looking away from Bruce. “Also, there’s no guarantee he won’t try to escape and give us the sleep because we underestimate him. And since I can’t be around Jason, I can at least keep working on that angle of the case back in the Nest.”

Because no way in hell are you benching me from this completely.

He can work from his place, and if there’s anything important, he can send it over. And he cam patch into the comms to follow along with the investigation from afar.

Whatever Bruce wants to say to that is interrupted by a tweeting noise from the computer. A beat later, a holographic projection of Wonder Woman appears in the front of them.

“You got my message.”

“Yes,” she replies. “And I can only corroborate what you already know. Nothing mortal can be done about the boy’s condition. Only an arrow from Eros’ bow will be able to temper the infection.”

Bruce’s expression doesn’t change, but Tim can sense his disappointment.

“I must also warn you that the further his condition progresses, the less conventional sedatives will work. I am surprised they even worked this time.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Modern pharmaceuticals might be able to render him unconscious, but it will not stop his brain function. The fixation will continue, thoughts unrestrained, and could overstimulate his brain to a fatal degree.”

They are all silent, digesting this.

“You said ‘nothing mortal’,” Bruce says after a moment. “There’s another option, isn’t there.”

Diana sighs. “Yes. I do have access to a method of pausing a gradual descent into madness, or rather I can locate it.”

“Great!” Dick says. “Let’s do that.”

“What’s the catch?” Tim wants to know.

“The only means I know of stopping the progression is Stygian Sleep.”

“No,” Bruce says immediately.

“What’s Stygian Sleep?” Dick asks.

“It’s in the myth,” Tim says, his research brain kicking in. “In the story of Cupid and Psyche—or, Eros and Psyche, I guess—Eros wife was put into a cursed sleep. But I thought that was just a poetic way of saying ‘really deep sleep’.”

“No. It’s a philtre created using the waters of the River Styx. Extremely powerful,” Diana explains.

“What happened to Psyche?” Dick asks.

“From what I read, she got woken up by her husband.”

“Well, that’s good, right?”

“In the story,” Diana agrees. “In actuality, he was unable to wake her. Her body wasted away and her soul was trapped in one of the darkest parts of Hades, bound to the Styx itself.”

And…that’s less good. Explains why Eros didn’t want to talk about it.

“None of this matters, because it isn’t an option,” Bruce declares.

“Don’t be closed-minded about this, Bruce, it isn’t a magic potion in the sense you think it is. The Sleep functions as a means of preserving his brain function without allowing the same deterioration that would be caused by mortal medicine. It will freeze him in the moment, keeping him safe and preserved while you seek out the means of his recovery. But if you don’t act quickly, his condition will worsen, and even if you employ the Sleep, it will be far from peaceful for him.”

“And if we don’t find that cure, he’ll be effectively braindead. No. We will find another way.”

Diana makes an impatient noise. “While I know you have every right to be confident in your abilities, you’re talking about a life. Your son’s life. Hubris is not a condition that was lost to the ancients.” The translucent body of her hologram turns as if to leave the room. “I will procure some of the philtre in case you change your minds,” Diana says, not sounding pleased. “I would hope you choose to think of the boy and not your own feelings on the matter.”

And she leaves them alone to stare at each other, the choice hanging over them more tangibly than the bats.

⁂

Next Chapter

#jaytimweek2019 #jaytimweek #jaytim #jaytimbingo2019 #fanfic #jaytim fic #batfic #tim drake #damian wayne #dick grayson #bruce wayne #secrets #warriors #angst #drama #stubborn boys trying to save stubborn boys #undying love #reincarnation

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wokainight · 6 years

Note

Can I request Husband Yuta and Doyoung? Thank you! I also wanted to say I really enjoy your writings!

note: TT w TT thank you for appreciating my uhmmmmm…. romanticised word vomit,.,,, yeah

YUTA:

you’ve always wondered how you got married to someone like nakamoto yuta

he was the epitome of sunshine and moonlight at the same time with his fluctuating moods.

and somehow, the two of you are distinctly polar opposites,,,

not bad ofc…………

but he takes good care of you,,

and takes you out on sunny days to exercise (even though you were reluctant to…) and makes you japanese food for dinner (with the help of his mama because he cooks with ‘feel’ instead of proper food science)

weekends are nice and subtle because yuta’s fairly high on his protein shakes and you just want to watch the shows you’ve missed

and this is settled by dragging you to the carpet, wrapping his arms around you and whispering things to you in japanese

(you sort of get to watch your show)

because your husband can really get it on— (the following content is 18+)

he likes to procrastinate on doing housework and it’s really getting to you. “yuu-kun, the laundry!” and he just smiles at you from the couch, hugging onto a pillow.

in the end you have to drag him to the laundry room and he just winks at you before you exit

okay

calls you “anata” sometimes, which is equivalent to “jagiya” in korean. and you call him yuu-kun because n i h o n

(and anime)

when winter comes by, the two of you are always stuck under the kotatsu (google for more info). you would just peel some mandarins and have mochi or steamed buns for days

is pro at teasing you

“i bet you can’t reach the cupboards” but then you prove him wrong and he’s like “i bet you can’t reach the door frame”

somehow very childish at the same time

the two of you would always start your morning drinking something hot (or cold, if it’s like really really hot) and just enjoying each other’s company without a word

he hogs the bathroom

like HOGS it

like H O G G G S S S S S GS S S S it

once, you were almost late for work

makes the best egg roll in the whole wide world and he knows it. (recipe courtesy of his mother)

you often face time his sister to discuss things about yuta and challenges you faced in your relationship

since you sort of know the language (japanese), and have been studying it rather furiously ever since the two of you got married, you communicate with his family pretty easily

yuta likes to teach you new words and kanji when he has time and you’d both cuddle on your bed, looking over your workbook

“you got so much better” he turns his head towards you, pecking your cheeks

“oh my god that’s a relief.” you sighed. “i thought i wasn’t getting anywhere”

“hey hey don’t say that” he rubs your back soothingly. “you’ve come a long way from saying konnichiwa wrong”

there goes yuta…

rolling on the ground…

your dropkick level: effective

lets just say that you didn’t want to remember a particular memory consisting of mixing up your words in front of your in laws

yuta gets up from the floor and tackles you onto the bed, initiating a tickle fight

“if you don’t surrender, i’m not stopping”

he really doesn’t give you time to surrender or anything because his arms are wrapped tightly around you and his lips are on top of yours

“how does a little yuta sound?” his eyes twinkled, somewhat mischievous.

and you just laugh because you know exactly what he means. “just kiss me”

“my pleasure” he whispers, when his lips are just a centimetre above yours.

DOYOUNG:

literally your boss

just kidding,

he treats you as an equal and would often ask for you input for things

the two of you got married exactly a year after he proposed to you at the first place you two met

he left you for a bit and comes back with a bunch of balloons and suddenly, you’re wondering what kind of anniversary you missed because you remembered celebrating your dating anniversary like a month ago

“what’s that for?” you pointed at the balloons

doyoung grins at his. “open your palm for me”

and you did

because you were sure doyoung wouldn’t drop a cockroach on it or anything

and he opens his hand a bit and a small object falls from the balloon strings and onto your hand

you sort of had to double take because.....

iS THAT AN ENGAGEMENT RING--

(if u like it u shoulda put a ring on it, o oo o 0ooh )

you sort of stare blankly at him

because u didn’t expect him to propose to you..... .... . . . . .. . . like you thought it would take another few years or something

and he sort of kneels down for you, looking up. “you know i’m not good at this... so give me some slack.” he coughs into his palm. “even though we’ve been together for a while, i can still remember the first time i saw you. you might not believe me, but i would say that it was love at first sight--” and you sort of squatted down and hugged your knees, ring tightly clenched inside your right hand.

doyoung’s a bit perplexed because his speech isn’t over and this wasn’t how it was supposed to go

you were crying for sure

“h-hey don’t cry-- do you not like it? i wasn’t sure how you’d like me to prop--”

“n- no” you choke out. trying to wipe away the waterfall-like tears. “there’s something in my eye” you posed.

but kim dongyoung knows better and he grabs a handkerchief out of his pocket (prepared for u crying most probs) and wipes away your tears

“are you that happy?” he hits jackpot. and you sort of give up acting tough and just nods at that.

“i don’t think i’ve ever been happier”

and when the two of you meet eyes, the butterflies you felt when you first got together was still there. it’s alive and you know that there’s no one else in this world that you would rather spend your life with.

the wedding theme had been an enchanted forest and everything’s as you imagined

especially the part where you walked towards him at the aisle, and sees that he’s biting down a smile

after your vows, it was time for the closure and doyoung leans in for the kiss,,

but not after he picks you up and holds your neck downwards to meet his lips.

the photos was fantastic but you still remembered how embarrassed you were at the ecstatic whistling and calls.

doyoung’s just as you remembered when you were dating:

he l o v e s his bed and would probably have married it instead if it was a thing (jks) (or am i)

doesn’t mean he makes you do everything like he mostly cooks and cleans when he’s not attached to the bed

the both of you don’t really like going out but if there’s somewhere you’d like to visit: it’ll be to the supermarket

“should we have grilled chicken tonight? and some salad?” and his eyes are just scanning at the produce and prices. “hey the avocado’s on sale”

the both of you (more like you) are pretty thrifty so you would compare sale prices and you don’t know why but it gave u great joy when you managed to secure a really good deal

doyoung likes to internet shop thought and the room’s so full you have to limbo your way through

“doyoung we need to talk”

and he drops his phone and looks at you dramatically

“w-what is this about” you can tell he’s anxious

“did you order a mini fridge”

his eyes are anxious and no matter how closely related he is to a bunny, you wouldn’t mind to dropkick his ass for spending so easily

and you spend the night chasing his sorry ass around the house

doyoung’s pulverised under you but in the end you enjoyed the mini fridge the most

lazy sunday mornings

a l w a y s

“dons... water” you rolled over towards him, and feels him stir

it was on his side and you sigh when there’s no response

so you sort of crawl on top of him to reach the bottle on the bedside table when you’re suddenly flipped and he’s now on top of you

he doesn’t say anything, but you can tell that his eyes are raking through you

“i’m thirsty” you stated,,, you haven’t drank a drop of water in like eight hours

doyoung licks his lips at this. “of course you are”

129 notes · View notes

hyojinrk-archived · 5 years

Photo

MGA 5 EPISODE ONE: tooice’s tt ( 8:08 - 9:11 ) & billie eilish’s idontwannabeyouanymore ( 3:31 - 4:17 ) reimagined acoustic cover

SHOWCASED: singing, guitar, creativity, bilinguality concept versatility??

TW: minor anxiety

there’s a sinking feeling in his chest when he sees the email, with its sleek, coldly official design and matter-of-fact wording. clicking around, reading every email except for the one from mnet, hyojin chews his bottom lip as he tries to immerse himself in anything but the reminder that he had, even for a moment, decided to stray from the path he had decided to follow for the past few years.

‘CONGRATULATIONS, KIM HYOJIN.’

for some reason, he doesn’t feel like he’s being congratulated at all.

he skims through the acceptance email from motte capital, the familiar name of the manager not bringing him much comfort. at this point, he was already guaranteed a spot as an employee, having worked there since his freshman year in university. he’s sure it’s a position that would be envied by anyone else in his department -- getting a job at a large finance firm over one break, nevertheless every one? if he didn’t know better, he would have thought it preferential treatment, too.

( of course, that wasn’t true. the only connection he had was was back in anyang, wondering how her dear son was doing in the big city. )

with a sigh, he opens the email, wondering if there was some kind of mixup, or confusion, or just general cruelty. maybe they were congratulating him for trying out, only to reject him and tell him that he wasn’t good enough. maybe things were better off that way, anyways.

it’s not very normal of him to be this melancholy -- it’s just that his fight with doyoung and resurfacing memories of seungyeon have been weighing him down and keeping him awake lately. there isn’t much comfort he can find unless it’s in singing or when he’s in the studio with seunghun, or even just hanging around with sakura. it’s difficult, indeed.

he remains there foolishly, like a statue, at the slow sinking realization that it wasn’t a joke -- the email gives him an address and information that would make no sense otherwise unless he had somehow passed whatever preliminary screening they had put him through two weeks ago. hyojin’s first reaction, naturally, is to put his phone on the table, face down, and to ignore the message despite the objection his heart raises.

one day and many hours of mindlessly singing songs on the piano that he can vaguely remember the chords for, hyojin finds himself straying back to the lyrics for seattle by sam kim, the unfamiliar, twisting feeling in his gut that had been haunting him ever since he had seen the email growing stronger with every note. he stops and sits there for a while, looking at his fingers on the plastic white keys, the way the keyboard slowly moves with his arms on the thin beams that held it up. in retrospect, it was already used and cheap when he had gotten ahold of it, but at that time, he had carefully collected all of the wages he had gotten from the bakery in a little piggybank on his desk to buy some kind of replacement for the old, rundown piano that he had left back at home, only bringing his guitar along with his small suitcase.

he was more comfortable now than he used to be, of course, but the thought still lingers whenever he plays, the reminder that he had been so determined to get what he wanted just to sing, to make music in the way he could best striking a chord in him.

maybe this was a sign.

❀

“no, this isn’t it.”

covering his mouth with his hand to try and muffle both a sigh of frustration and a yawn, his eyes remain glued on the bright screen of his laptop as he exits out of the fiftieth music video he’s seen that night. call it a bad habit, but when he stays up late for things like this, he tends to keep all the other lights off -- partially not to disturb jooyoung, but also to save electricity. there wasn’t much for him to lose, anyways -- he already wore glasses with an admittedly rather high prescription.

hearing the inklings of sleep creeping into his voice, now gruff from staying completely silent for at least an hour or so, he ruffles his hair to try and keep himself awake. he doesn’t have much time to waste before the internship starts in a week or two and with the auditions approaching faster than ever. he’ll fix whatever mess he makes of his sleep schedule later, when the performance is over. for now, he’ll have to find something that fits perfectly.

he wants to show another side of him while keeping the same theme. a chaos song? 12:30? a classic, but not currently trendy. what about a momoland song? or...

pausing in his trail of thought, hyojin’s mind zeroes in on an idea. a girl group song? that’s a good mix of trendy and catchy. finally picking up his guitar after spending so long with his fingers itching to play something, anything, but his head not allowing himself to get sidetracked while doing something so important.

closing his eyes and strumming a few chords while muffling the strings, hyojin quietly starts to sing a song from the top of his head. “what to do, keep me still / make me like ooh ahh ooh ahh -- oh? that’s not bad, what about this,” changing the fingering patterns, he starts a new song, “who that who that who that boy,” then changing again, “i can’t stop this trembling / on and on and on / i wanna throw my all / into your world.” he stops playing once his voice gets a little too loud and he can hear it echo, wincing.

a girl group medley wouldn’t be too bad, but considering his time frame, the amount of time it would take him to decide on songs and arrange them together and practice seemed unrealistic. maybe he’ll just stick with one or two.

it’s relatively smooth sailing after that -- he ends up choosing tooice’s tt, and after another session of scrolling through random songs on youtube to try and jar his memory as to what would be good to sing, he decides to settle on a billie eilish song as well. no matter how much he tries, he can’t ignore his ballad and emotional vocal side.

by the night before the performance, hyojin finds that the late thoughts have ebbed away, and falls into a dreamless sleep.

❀ IN THE STUDIO ;

if he was asked to list out the top three things he was most grateful for at that very moment, hyojin would definitely list his cousin as one of them. he’s trying not to take note of how clammy his hands feel and the amount of nerves he has for something as big as this, but he manages to maintain his composure, more so to keep up appearances around jooyoung and not worry him.

perhaps he’s too preoccupied with trying to absorb the largeness of the studio and everything around him, but before he knew it, his hand was being grabbed by jooyoung and he was being pulled along to a section of the seats. it takes him a second too late to realize that they weren’t going to be sitting along this time around -- although it isn’t unwelcome to see seungmin in any sort of setting, the realization that both jooyoung and seungmin were going to be sitting together for god knows how long. he’s tempted to take the lead and sit in between them to avoid becoming the collateral damage of their interaction, but it’s clear that the older male has something else in mind when he literally sits next to the boy.

“ah, seungminnie.” he waves a hand weakly in greeting, only offering an embarrassed smile when he’s responded to with surprise.

admittedly, he hadn’t told anyone except for maybe jooyoung and sakura, but he also had run into seunghun and sungwoon during auditions. that makes for less than five people, but in retrospect, he didn’t seem like the type to do something like this.

he can feel the tension boiling between the two siblings, sitting awkwardly in his seat and watching the spectacle almost nervously, as if waiting any moment to break them apart in case a fight went down. so this would be what the kim family reunion would be like, huh. although, he supposes the only person missing would be junyoung.

regardless, he simply smiles back at jooyoung when the male turns helplessly to give him a dry smile and shrug, as if saying what can i do, that’s how youngsters are. laughing to try and break the bad mood, he shifts in his seat again and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

“let’s just do well, everyone.”

once the broadcasting begins and the ceos are introduced, hyojin finds himself covering his mouth in shock, and he turns to look at jooyoung in surprise. admittedly, he hadn’t really watched much of the mgas unless it was clips concerning sungwoon, so he had thought the judging panel would just be a bunch of professional performers that could judge idols.

instead, seeing all five figures in front of him on the stage sends shocks through his body, somehow making the stakes seem far higher now that such qualified eyes were upon them. it wasn’t exactly that he listened to a lot of idol music or paid close attention to the entertainment companies, but it’s still the feeling of seeing celebrities in the flesh that makes him so starstruck.

even then, adding onto that, the contestants seemed to be called in a random order after the initial announcements were made by the judges. nevertheless, he tries his best to enjoy the stages, watching carefully and attentively as each of them performed and cheering for his friends. he can’t help but comment on haruto as he gets on the stage as well, surprised at seeing the familiar face.

“ah, so cute,” hyojin says, smiling fondly and his hands curling up in an almost cringe at how endearing he found the boy during his introduction, and he calls out a soft “がんばってね ( ganbatte ne / do your best )” to the boy in japanese before he starts his skating performance. it’s incredibly impressive and certainly something he’s never seen before until now, and the finesse with which the younger boy performed was definitely eye-catching. of course, he stands up in his seat when haruto ends up falling off the stage after waving, clear concern on his face for the poor boy that still doesn’t go away entirely, even when he proves to be okay.

that aside, he remains seated for the rest of the performances, cheering for seungmin as he sings an english song, mesmerized by his voice, and then jooyoung, who plays some of the guitar. despite having heard jooyoung practicing in his room from time to time, hyojin still chuckles at the similarity in their instrument choices, swaying along to the songs he plays.

“guess it’s a kim cousin thing.” he says to seungmin, gesturing at the acoustic guitar he had with him as well, before looking up at jooyoung with his electric guitar meaningfully.

by the time it was his turn to go up, it felt more like he had been watching a concert and was now being asked to perform.

❀ ON THE STAGE ;

growing shy when he hears baek jiyoung call his name, hyojin grabs his guitar and heads onto the stage, ducking his head down with red ears. admittedly, he’s a little flustered to have all of their attention on him, but he tries his best to stay relaxed nevertheless. the moment he slings the guitar over his shoulder, however, he feels his legs starting to quiver slightly, only growing more intense when baek jiyoung asks him to introduce himself.

“ah, hello, i’m 21 year old kim hyojin,” he says, holding up two fingers on one hand and one finger on the other with a soft smile.

he tries not to think of other things while speaking, but he can’t help but think back to how doyoung would occasionally call him a ‘pretty boy,’ and even how his old middle school friends would comment on his eye smile and how sweet he looked whenever smiling. stuttering before he continues his sentence, hyojin adds, “i’ve been singing since i was around... seven? yeah -- i won’t take up too much longer, but i hope you’ll enjoy and that the worries you might have had today will be erased. also...”

inhaling softly once he realizes how his legs are wobbling a bit now, hyojin grows sheepish, asking, “would it be okay if i got a chair? i think i’ll sit while playing.”

thanking the staff member that brings up a chair for him to sit on and adjusting the microphone to his height while strumming the guitar to make sure it’s tuned, he looks up again at the audience, then the judges, trying not to grow red before flashing a thumbs up. taking a deep breath, he starts to strum the beginning to tooice’s tt.

이러지도 못하는데 i’m in two minds 저러지도 못하네 in an awkward situation 그저 바라보며 ba-ba-ba-baby i just stare and say ba-ba-ba-baby 매일 상상만 해 이름과 함께 everyday i only imagine without asking 쓱 말을 놨네 baby i talk casually and say your name baby 아직 우린 모르는 사인데 but we don’t even know each other

singing the song sweetly despite it being at the same fast pace, hyojin purposefully slows down at some parts to emphasize, varying the notes in a more syncopated, sensual way than the typically cutesy way of the original. at the same time, he notably pouts at the last line, his eyes shining as his fingers brush over the strings in a well practiced manner.

nanana nananana 콧노래가 나오다가 나도 몰래 i start humming and before i know it 눈물 날 것 같애 i feel like crying, i don’t feel like myself 아닌 것 같애 내가 아닌 것 같애 this isn’t like me at all i love you so much

trying not to grow shy when he hears jooyoung’s voice cheering for him the crowd, he closes his eyes briefly, starting to feel himself get lost in the rhythm of the song, growing out of his nervous shell that he had shown in the introduction. as soon as he hits the chord for the last line, he opens his eyes to wink at the judge panel on ‘i love you so much.’

이미 난 다 컸다고 생각하는데 think i’m all grown up now 어쩌면 내 맘인데 왜 i’m free to make my own choices, but why 내 맘��로 할 수 없는 건데 why can’t i have it my way 밀어내려고 하면 할수록 the more i try to push you away 자꾸 끌려 왜 자꾸 자꾸 끌려 baby the more i’m drawn and attracted to you baby

slowly picking up the beat as he reaches an especially well known part of the popular girl song, he bursts into a bright smile once he starts to see some heads bobbing in the audience, clearly enjoying the rendition of such a popular song, some even starting to do the gestures of the dance vaguely.

i’m like tt, just like tt 이런 내 맘 모르고 너무해 너무해 you don’t know how i feel, so mean, so mean i’m like tt, just like tt tell me that you’d be my baby

hitting the chorus, he starts to have fun with the lyrics, his voice following along smoothly as he slightly angles his head to glance at the contestants in the audience with a slighty half smile, almost like a smirk, shaking his head cutely while singing ‘so mean, so mean.’ once he reaches the end of the segment, he slows down his strumming, ending it on a nice chord.

before a silence ensues, he adjusts his sitting position ever so slightly before starting, strumming the guitar, before entering right into the middle of the chorus of idonwannabeyouanymore.

if "i love you" was a promise would you break it, if you're honest tell the mirror what you know she's heard before

hitting each beat hard, he starts to sing more powerfully, voice thick with emotion and eyes squeezing shut as he feels the melody, shifting into a far different mood from the playful nature of tt. in a few seconds, the atmosphere suddenly turns melancholy and moody.

i don't wanna be you i don't wanna be you

slowing down as he draws out the lines slowly, he starts playing the guitar more quietly in the background, barely pausing to repeat the line again, this time going into a higher note, hearing it sound smoothly in the studio.

i don't wanna be you, anymore

finally, one last time, he echoes the last line, playing nothing but one last chord and eyes reopening gradually. removing his fingers from the neck of the guitar, he speaks a “thank you” into the microphone before standing up and bowing multiple times to the people around him.

flipping the guitar so that it hung over his shoulder against his back, he makes his way off the stage with a little more confidence than when he entered it. as much as it was nervewracking, he would be lying if he said it wasn’t enjoyable.

maybe singing was what he was meant to do, after all.

#&. galaxy #rkmga5 #rkmga5callback #[[ mentioned!#rkjooyoung #rkseungmin #rksakura #me: okay just get the audition in and you're fine #me: 1k again before literally anyone performs #hyojin aka the man with the world's longest backstory ig #rkharuto #tw; anxiety #( stamina... maybe??? )

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frisbee-camp · 6 years

Text

Let Me Help

AO3 Link//Wattpad Link

Tj and Cyrus have been friends for a long time, but will that change after life comes crashing down and impulsive decisions catch up to them? (Angst, Ambi, love notes, slow burn, aged up so they're all in high school, god tier ships, mental health, and like a whole bunch more ladies! Let’s get this angst.)

Chapter 7 I’m really in this now

TJ didn't know what to think. He had gone to Iris' party only because he had invited Cyrus, and even then, seeing him drunk was an...experience. He had walked in with Amber, who immediately went to Andi, who was awkwardly sitting next to Marty and Buffy. TJ panicked when he saw Cyrus, he had texted him saying he'd be there, but other than that TJ didn't know what to do with his new truth. He had a crush on Cyrus Goodman. Amber had told him to confess, but he couldn't just do that. So instead, he ignored him. But, he couldn't help but feel Cyrus' eyes on him. God, he probably thinks I'm a jerk again. He had thought. TJ had spent the entire day with knots in his stomach, confessing to Cyrus meant his crush was real and didn't know if he wanted to change what they had. He wasn't very good at change. TJ went to his old friend group at the party because it was comfortable, at least with them nothing was new. "Yo," said Lester. "Hey," Tj had greeted them as he quickly eyed Cyrus. Is he drinking? His old friend group consisted of Reed, Lester, Tom, Angel, and Matthew. He hadn't spoken to them organically in a while, but he didn't expect them to change much. All they did was smoke weed and talk about girls, one of which TJ never explored much of. The guys liked to call themselves the "Gucci gang" (emphasis on the Gucci) for reasons TJ had already forgotten after the third hit. "Bro, this shit hits harrrrd" Tom had told Reed, "Is my face still here??" The gang busted out laughing, but TJ couldn't help but catch a glimpse of Cyrus looking at him again. Cyrus had been sitting on the floor, his head in Andi's lap as they gently raked his hair back with their fingers. God I wish that were me. "YOO TT! You good man? This shit bops right?" Lester had snapped his fingers in front of TJ's face. "Huh? Oh, yea. It hits I guess." TJ said, itching behind his ear. "Hey man, what's up? Are you not having fun?" Lester lowered his voice and leaned closer, he was the most emotionally intelligent out of all of them. "Dude," Lester said, "Do you wanna talk? I know you're not high, this weed is wack" Lester chuckled. TJ looked over at Cyrus again, who he saw looking longingly at Jonah, who was laughing with Walker. Lester followed his gaze, "Oh," Lester said, "got it. You know we all know right? Like we been knew since middle school." TJ blinked in surprise, "And you guys are like, okay with that?" "Dude, come on. We're your bros and it's the 21st century," Lester said. TJ chuckled slightly and grinned, "Shit, I didn't even know till this week." TJ had looked over again, this time Cyrus caught his eye, raised his cup to his lips, and chugged its contents. "Bro, you don't think he's straight right?" Lester said with raised eyebrows as he hit it again. "He dated Iris." TJ said as Lester passed it to him. He passed it to Angel, he had had enough. "Don't be so dense T, sexuality is fluid." "Lester you're like a straight up guru right now. When'd you get so wise huh?" Tj said as he nudged him with his shoulder. Lester shrugged. By midnight, the music had become so defining that TJ thought it would bring the house down. He couldn't see Cyrus anymore which made him anxiously fidget with the hem of his hoodie. What if something happened to him? Because of the drunk dancing teenagers, the gang had moved from their corner to the kitchen. TJ and Lester sat on the counter as Reed, Angel, and Tom had decided to get as drunk as humanly possible. TJ had poured sprite into a red cup to make it seem like he was drinking. He hated the feeling of being out of control. He had been staring at the contents at hand when Lester nudged his shoulder and said, "Hey, look who's here" TJ's heart raced as the butterflies returned. Cyrus walked - well stumbled- in, but he was okay. Cyrus poured himself another drink and walked straight up to TJ ignoring the noises of encouragement from the gang. "You!" Cyrus said, pointing. TJ couldn't help but notice everyone's eyes on him. Reed eyed them suspiciously. "Me?" TJ said jokingly. Cyrus waved his arms around, and said, "UH DOY, you sir, are IGNORING me and that hurts my feelings. I THOUGH we were friends" TJ smiled a bit and hummed. Seeing Cyrus with his guard down was a rare occurrence, especially with his hair looking perfectly imperfect and his cheeks too red from the alcohol. He looked like an angry toddler. "Hey!" Cyrus slapped his shoulder. It didn't hurt. "Stop ignoring me," he said, as he slowly stumbled out of the kitchen. Everyone immediately turned to TJ, who was lovingly following Cyrus with his eyes. The place where Cyrus had hit him tingled. Reed busted out laughing "Uh," he said, "Did anyone else see that?" The rest of the gang had joined Reed in laughing, Reed began to mock Cyrus. "Stop ignoring me TJ! I love you so much muah muah muah" Reed and Tom laughed to each other. TJ's felt a lump in his throat, he balled his fists and slammed down his drink. "Why do you guys have to be such douches all the time!" TJ yelled. They had gone back to mocking TJ and Cyrus now, Reed had started to say "Oh Cyrus! You're so cool I just want to look at you all day, and talk about you all day!" TJ hopped off the counter and paced out of the kitchen. God why do I even hang out with them? He heard Lester call out saying, "Oh come on TJ, we're just teasing!" TJ felt heat overtake him, he had never felt so angry. His friends had teased him before, but they never mocked Cyrus. He found himself in Iris' backyard after having shoved his way past the hormone ridden mob. He sat on her porch steps and rested his head on his knees. He felt tears stick to his cheeks but didn't bother wiping them away. After a while, people started coming outside to see the stars, mostly couples holding hands. TJ groaned and aggressively rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. He thought someone would come out to see if he was okay, but no one did. After cooling down, TJ went back inside to see if Amber wanted to go back home. He just wanted to take a shower and go to bed. The inside of the house had gotten way messier than he expected, the music had died down and now people were sprawled out on any surface their body allowed them. He searched the rooms for Amber, only to find her curled up on the living room couch with Andi. The living room's lights had been dimmed, so he couldn't see many faces. People were playing spin the bottle, although everyone was too drunk to properly spin it, so it was more like "move the bottle, kiss who you want." He heard whoops and felt a stab of jealousy, Was Cyrus playing? Before going over to Amber, TJ saw Cyrus sprawled on the floor and Reed? Before he knew any better, Tj had pulled Reed away from Cyrus and made sure he was okay. "Dude! What's your problem today!" Reed slurred. "I'm trying to help him. I know how much you care about him." "Stay out of it Reed! Go be an asshole somewhere else!" TJ blurted out. "GOD, what is with you. Do you like him or something?" Reed said. Everyone's eyes had turned towards them. TJ felt hot and angry. His fingernails dug into his palm. He fell silent. "So we were right, you do like him! And now you're choosing him over us?! We've been friends longer than you have with that loser-" TJ heard a crack, he felt his fist hit bone. He opened his eyes and saw Reed on the floor. The next moments consisted of the gang holding back Reed while strings of curse words reigned. "Fuck you TJ," Reed finally said, "don't bother crawling back to us when you get your HEAD out of your ASS," he yelled as the gang dragged him away. Lester gave TJ an apologetic look. TJ kneeled in front of Cyrus, he didn't care about the stares, he just wanted to make sure he was safe. He had tried getting Cyrus to his feet, only for him to tell him things that made TJ's heart flutter and get thrown up on. "Hey," Tj heard a voice say softly behind him, "Hey, let's get out of here." Amber helped TJ drag Cyrus to his feet. People were staring. The music had been turned off. "What!" TJ said to the staring teenagers. Everyone flinched. The car ride home consisted of drunk Andi and Cyrus crying and hugging each other. They keep repeating, "I love you so much friend I love you so much" and "Buffy! Come hug!" "Buffy's with Walker, you'll see her soon" Amber had to repeat fifteen times. Amber didn't speak to TJ the entire ride home. When they pulled into their driveway, they saw their dad sitting in his car. Tj groaned and rolled his eyes. "What is he doing here," Amber said, " And why is he just sitting there like a creep?" TJ sighed and said, "Mom changed the locks." They looked at each other. They'd deal with their father another day. Amber and TJ learned that dragging Andi and Cyrus out of the Bug was a lot harder than getting them in. There was crying and more vomit until finally, Amber offered them cookies if they went inside. Their mom wasn't home that day. On Saturdays, she'd get wine drunk with her friends. She always told them she'd come back, but they knew she wouldn't be back until Monday morning. She wasn't a bad mother, just selectively neglectful. The twins had spent twenty minutes coaxing Andi and Cyrus into their home. Amber had taken Andi into her room, and Tj had been left with a semi-conscious Cyrus with no motor skills. He had left Cyrus on his bed to shower and change into pajamas, only to find him on his floor when he came back. TJ rushed over to him, "Cyrus! Cyrus are you okay?" He rolled him over. "I am now," Cyrus said, "You're very pretty" Tj blushed, he suddenly liked drunk candid Cyrus. "Here," he said, "put this on" TJ had grabbed a random hoodie from his drawers and handed it to Cyrus. "OH mhm okay" Cyrus slurred and painstakingly took off his dirty party clothes, TJ turned around. When he turned back around, he saw that Cyrus had crawled into his bed. He was so small that TJ only saw his forehead poking out from under the covers. He grinned and immediately frowned. I'm really in this now.

#andi mack fic #read on ao3 #let me help #my fic #tyrus #tyrus fanfic #andi mack #cyrus goodman #tj kippen #amber kippen #ambi #muffy #please read on ao3 the format is messy here thank you ladies

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sleepymarmot · 6 years

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A couple of months ago, after finishing COUNTER/Weight, I spent about a week in a total hangover, relistening to scenes and having feelings. I took some notes, but procrastinated posting them, and then finally got distracted. But, a) I hate leaving things I intended for tumblr unposted, even if they have value only for me, and b) I also hate posting things out of order, and there's a big TM liveblog incoming. So, here's a bunch of really random thoughts about C/w from past me.

The gnosis virus did go nowhere huh. I was hopeful for a minute when one of the finale intros mentioned it, but that was it. What was the purpose of that arc even. [Note from present me: Lol. At least I feel better about this one!]

Oh, and the patch AuDy left never reappeared either. And the idea from the faction game that Aria's images owned by EarthHome/Petrichor transmit Rigour code… That's the flip side of the coin. On the one hand, it's really cool to see the creative process – on the other, it sometimes feels like you're listening to people write a script for the tv show, but only get to see a half of the finished product. It's fascinating to see the universe grow organically and the players to come up with new ideas and get excited about them – but that means numerous retcons, some of them not even presented as such, because the creators forgot what the previous revision was or didn't thought it was important. It's a unique feature of the medium that player choice directs the narrative and it's not bound by railroading – but that means some roads lead nowhere, and some branches dry and fall off.

It's a bit harder to make peace with something that could have easily been developed more within the existing plot of the show. How come there's a player character whose consciousness consists of three different people in various combinations, but nobody seems to be curious how that works? No PC or NPC ever asked “Which one of you is speaking right now?” or something. The final episodes made a lot of things clearer, but it still felt too little, too late. Hard not to be reminded of that gripe about certain two characters sharing one character sheet one of whom was left underdeveloped and half-forgotten… Both are very ambitious concepts that require a double amount of work from the player, so I feel bad complaining they weren't realized to full potential, but…

Speaking of L&D… I still want to know how the hell did that one engineer all by herself design 4 gods, one of which became a basis for technology that was advanced even for the civilizations 80,000 years later? This woman singlehandedly surpassed any technological achievement of humanity before and after. Who Is She

I saw a “Wake me up: before you go go / when september ends / wake me up inside” meme and thought “heh, this sounds relevant, which member of the Chime is which?” and it already made me sad, but then I realized that I'd never actually heard the september song and looked it up and. The lyrics fit so well. What the fuck. It's an old song everyone keeps joking about. Why is it appropriate for a legitimate fanmix. What. I guess the word “September” will never be the same again for me.

I looked up the rules for Firebrands, the game used for the finale. Oh my, challenges for the dance minigame are so overtly romantic when you see them in a list together! Imagine this cast of characters having to answer to “do you place your hand upon my elbow, shoulder, waist, or hip?” lmao. Also I didn't realize “May I?” was part of the rules for “stealing time together”. (And I found out there's a party version of that minigame with bug-themed challenges. I might have dug too deep…) "Tactical skirmish" is a really fascinating concept, I've never seen such a masochistic combat system! Really faces the player with the violence they're inflicting: sure, you can always fight on, but are you ready to live with what you'll have to do? But for it to work fully, you need a lot of non-expendable NPCs on both sides. The one with the most likeable team wins! (Like Mako did.)

I'm relistening to Three Conversations and it's pretty interesting that Ibex has a bunch perfectly lifelike android bodies, right? There is no such technology seen anywhere else. Did Righteousness develop and privatize that? Are they so complex that only a Divine would have enough computing power to successfully mimic organic life? Can Aria convince Righteousness to help her perform on stage without leaving her duties? Also, like with AuDy, I wonder how Ibex & Righteousness' consciousness works. Is it a single mind, spread across every body he has, or even anything Righteousness is running on, having a bunch of different conversations at once if he needs to? Or is the original Ibex just gone, and what's left is a personality imprint hanging on to the connection to his still living body, imitating his former self like the automated recording Cass saw wore his face? In other words, has Ibex completely fused with Righteousness, or assimilated and destroyed by it? Does he not exist anymore as an independent singular being, or does he not exist at all? Most info indicates the former, but there was also “You’re not in there anymore” “No”.

If Orth and Jace are anime fans with their Kingdom Come and Panther, then Ibex is the guy who's way too into dinosaurs or paleontology. It's as if the heads of various confessions were called Triceratops, Stegosaurus etc. and only one of them knows wtf that means, and also he compares his Divine to… Were there scavenging dinosaurs? I'm looking at an article that suggests T. Rex might have been a scavenger, so yeah he would compare Righteousness to a goddamn T. Rex.

Hey what do you think is the most thematically aproppriate part of the Hieron anime for Orth to watch alone at night during the Kingdom game. What's the best thematic parallel for when he turns off the episode and thinks he made a mistake. Do you think that he once, after a long day and a long month and maybe a long year of feeling helpless and doomed, sits down for a distraction but ends up sobbing “How could they let this happen to Mother Glory”

On Joypark, there are definitely statues of Eidolons, ancient and holy, that were repainted and repurposed as Hieron deities. Imagine a giant Greek or Roman style marble statue of Apote – and it’s painted over as Samot, with an anime face and in really bright plain colors like these “reconstructions of original coloring” that actually only use base colors so they look like cheap action figures.

I was reading Austin's top ten games of 2016 list on Waypoint and he gave first place to The Sprawl! Aww!

The Downloads folder in my phone gallery is funny bc it mostly consists of every freely available f@tt map and also that one photo of Tristan Walker (because I tried to redraw it, very unsuccessfully). I go check a map and every time am met by Ibex just. staring at me. It's unsettling

Some of the many options for how Apostolosian gender could have been presented:

Apostolosians prefer to be addressed by the most neutral available human pronoun, represented as "they" in English, because the human languages don't have anything close enough

Apostolosian pronouns are represented in English by a set of real-life common pronouns and neopronouns

There's a list of Apostolosian pronouns and they're just used in English verbatim (Really impractical because the players need a cheat sheet, but the most fair)

Humans apply human genders to Apostolosians. Apostolosians may be offended, may find it convenient, or something else

As Austin said in the post-mortem, the Eidolon system is not gender. It's represented in English by titles/honorifics/etc

Any of the above, and the creators are aware of the difference between personal pronouns, grammatical gender, and social gender

And that’s not even touching the core problem of what the concept of gender in a futuristic, techonologically advanced society would look like. Yes, I'm complaining about this for the third time but I'm just. So tired of native English speakers' takes on gendered language. They could have made Apostolosian gender look like anything and they made it look like that fucking mess... God, I really hope TM is good enough to make me forget and forgive the experience of listening to “he... sorry, they” for 100 hours. [Note from present me: Well… mostly]

Here’s my take on this: eidolons in Apostolosian language are absurdly broad noun classes with associated classifiers (which fits both the idea that they’re gender but not actually, and that each of them is a patron to several unrelated aspects of life) Apostolosian: the word “(Apo)thesa” is used to refer to people who follow the corresponding eidolon, as well as for counting buildings, heavy machinery, military units, specific strategies and tactics, log entries, historical documents and chronicles, history textbooks and monographs, and eras :) Human: what the fuck

Very critical, imaginative worldbuilding in which 80,000+ years into the future humanity somehow has 21st century gender and 21st century capitalism! TBH, I find any sci-fi set in the far future inherently silly – we can’t really imagine the future technogy and its effect on society. But it feels like C/w barely even tried, and to hear it boast about “critical worldbuilding” is kinda strange. I assumed that meant they build the world critically, not that they recreate modern society or some aspect of it and criticize that! It’s just another Star Trek then! And it was already clear right during the setup when they said “We don’t want Star Trek aliens” and immediately created Apostolosians.

I haven't seen a single piece of fanart with Taako and Mako. Come on, does nobody want to see these two next to each other! Especially considering the outfits artists like to put Taako in!

I really don't understand how and why people do fandom activities on Twitter and Discord where the creators also have accounts. It gives me so much secondhand embarrassment. I can barely peek at Twitter posts before running away. Old-fashioned opinion apparently but I strongly believe the main fandom space and the interaction-with-original-creators space should be separate. I need a space where I can voice my opinions, especially negative ones, with complete freedom. I need to be able to say exactly what's on my mind. But I wouldn't want any of the people on the podcast to read something unfiltered like my complaints above. Being in the same space as the source content creators obliges any decent person to be diplomatic and constructive. And the creators, in turn, need a space where they don't come across complete randos yelling at them about something they said in a podcast three years ago. I'm already feeling uncomfortable because hearing to strangers pour their hearts out for hundreds of hours gives me way too much insight on who they are as people. Of course, nothing’s stopping them from lurking on Tumblr or AO3 and even reading this very post, but a platform where they have official accounts is still a different thing! I even feel uncomfortable talking about the podcast creators using their first names so much. To my ear, referring to a total stranger by first name, especially if it's a shortened form, sounds so rude! I'm not their friend, I don't have that right! But, of course, writing something like “Mr Walker” in my liveblogs would have been even weirder, nobody does that...

Is it a common experience to not even think about fanfiction after listening to Hieron, but going straight to AO3 after C/w? I feel like since Hieron is still a work in progress, writing/reading about it is stepping on the GM&players' toes, and C/w is finished so it's like they gave us the keys to the playground, it's the fandom's turn now. This story has so much blanks and they must be filled! In one of the early episodes they joked that something cute they said would encourage people to ship Mako/Cass and I was like "Bold of you to assume they aren't already" and, indeed, I was right and it's the most popular C/w ship on AO3. Too bad I’m so indifferent to it…

It’s a shame we never had a full scene with Ariadne or even learned what they were up to during the finale.

I still don't understand how Ibex went from “evil CEO” to “leader of a proletarian revolution”, these sound like completely opposite concepts to me

I probably have talked about this too much and have pretty much given up on ever getting a clear picture due to all of these reimaginings but… Righteousness and Voice… Ibex takes Righteousness out of Mako but he still has Voice, that was pretty much openly stated, correct? So how does that work? I’m guessing Righteousness is hidden somewhere in Voice’s code. But if so:

Did Maryland know? On the one hand, she’s too competent not to. On the other, why would she ever allow or accept that?

How did Righteousness not get corrupted by Rigour too? Maybe it did, but broke off the connection with the rest of itself to contain the damage? Or maybe, on the contrary, it kept in contact and was sending intel to Ibex the whole time? But in that case he would have provided more help in the finale.

#friends at the table #blah blah blah

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0tivez · 3 years

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I wish my body would stop going into fight or flight mode every time it hears Shibuya. Somethings we cant change Ig 😭

I picture baby Megumi as the grumpiest baby, always with a frown, but in a cute way. Definitely glaring at gojo through the mirror as he uses a shitton of hair gel to make his hair all spiky

I love reze so much I hope she isn't [spoiler] ya know?? that scene with denji waiting at the cafe SO CLOSS YET SO FAR I- I need to continue reading it, I just don't- I know it will break my heart

OH I also just remembered!!! I watched the first 4 episodes of Tokyo revengers and Im only watching for the op bc I hate the animation and the sound effects 😁 the voice acting is good so far tho! but the animation I just- it scares takes me out of what im watching bc it looks off

I LOVE YOUR COSTUME IDEA!!! I love Freddie in the I want to break free video, he's so cool. fun fact! queen was my top Spotify artists for 2, or it might've been 3 I don't remember very well, years! I still like their music but I don't listen to them as often :/ I dunno why, I think I just switched genres 🤷‍♀️ I think, even people thought you were a weeb, they'd think youre the coolest, most mysterious cold blooded sexy weeb to ever exist 😌 also, kobeni is so sweet, she's very funny <3

LMFAO I have no idea what an enneagram type is BUT I agree. I just googled giyuu and he looks very Megumi. you think the three of them would get along?? I have mixed thoughts right now. I feel like there would be a weird tension between Aki and Megumi; like a I don't know if I like you but I kinda do.

I- the holy trinity is gonna make me scream LMFAO I don't know much about va's but Takahiro Sakurai's voice is 👀 I love voice acting. I don't do it well but I would love to learn ngl. ive seen a bunch of tiktoks of a group of vas saying lines from animes and they all sound so cool :D

ilym! <3

A lot of people mention how there's no, or most of the time, villains that do evil things just for the sake of being evil, but bc they believe they are right in away and I honestly would love to see the current jjk mc's as evil from the other side's perspective; thats a very interesting idea! thanks for sharing that pov! I would also like to objectively analyse toji, and a bunch of other characters, but I am a biased whore so I won't even try <3

AND A TOJI SPINOFF?? I wish gege had Tumblr so he could see this >:( actually, do you think gege has a Tumblr?? imagine him just lurking and reading- shivers ANYWAY I would sell my kidneys for it. I wanna see a detailed retelling of his life growing up as part of the zen'in clan up until he left. Maybe how he met Megumi's mom as well ugh- I need that

HIDDEN INVENTORY IS ENDING ME EVERYTIME I THINK ABOUT IT. Gege make gojo keep suffering 2k22. I feel like I make fun of gojo a lot bc of toji trauma but it also makes me sad everything he had to go through TT if gojo was on Tumblr he'd probably filter the tag 'cw toji' im sorry im gonna shut up

OH BC I TOTALLY GET THE CLASS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR CAREER ITS INFURIATING I think that was one of the things that made me depressed as well, I just felt useless and like I was doing nothing for my life bc I was kinda forced to study a career I didn't enjoy by my parents lol

Guess ill start sending Tuesdays ask so my ethereal presence makes things better 😌 im joking. but not a more serious note I hope your Tuesdays get better; I know they will eventually even if they feel like a pain in the ass right now, im rooting for you :D

thanks for asking! so the search is going like shit. Looking back at what I wrote this is also a bit of a vent :,)

im so confused bc okay, so after I dropped out of college I started applying to college for theatre bc it was what I wanted to do at the time. After sending and doing a couple of auditions 3 out of the 4 colleges I applied to reached out to tell me that even though they thoroughly enjoyed my performance, I would not be eligible for a second round. I think that their rejection--which some people have told me to not look at it that way bc "they didn't reject you, you just didn't get in" WHAT DO YOU CALL IT THEN (this is also probably bc Spanish has more words to explain rejection than English ig??)--just depressed me a bit? like I kinda stopped caring about stuff and started to avoid anything to do with my future, talking about college and career paths and such. the rejection from the first college really led me to not care much about the second audition so I can see how I did myself dirty there. I had high hopes and when I didn't meet them I kinda crashed.

I don't know if I wanna continue with theatre, I don't think I do for a lot of nuanced reasons that im still scared of sharing. Im not really passionate about acting either, but sometimes its hard if im not passionate about it bc I didn't get in or bc im truly not passionate about it. don't get me wrong, I like acting and putting on plays bc I think its fun but I wouldn't kill for it, you know??

other than that, I don't have a lot of careers in mind. I know I like artsy things ig? like baking and drawing and writing, so my safest choice is to follow a path in there. I also looked at a very cool business program that included the acquisition of Japanese language and I really liked that! I think Japanese is a beautiful language and ive always wanted to learn. Plan z is going back to the college I dropped out of and continue where I left it ig (degree in communication); my mom is very keen on this one. I feel like I sound like a spoiled brat and im sorry if I came off this way, it was not my intention to do so.

I feel nice after writing all that lmfao, I hope it wasn't too much of a bother oof

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE TUMBLR, it a messy platform but its been my home for forever <3 the costumization aspect- I could spend hours upon hours here just changing fonts and adding symbols and just tweaking details here and there.

I would love to share my fic! let me send the link through another ask :D

Writing long responses is a pain on mobile TT specially bc Tumblr would sometimes glitch bc the mobile app is hell. I remember reading a fanfic a while ago and in the middle of it the app just shut down and I lost it and I never found it again LMFAO its happened way too many times for me to feel any sort of pain, im numb towards any of the attacks from the Tumblr mobile app lol.

ANYWAY! I always look forward to your responses! You're very fun to interact with :D and don't worry! you don't have to apologise <3

This was a really long ask im sorry LMFAO TT but I hope you have a good weekend! im writing this on Thursday so its close to the weekend LOL

-🥳 anon

okay 🥳 i will smack you if you apologize again hereby i announce you're banned from apologizing

megumi is just scary without even trying lol imagine gojo's reaction to megumi being a bully bully in middle school 😭 OR imagine gojo telling megumi to smack those asses KLAEWFLKMAFL MY HEART

reze is best girl. we were robbed

right?? the animation is BAD. apparently, it's the same studio that did 2016 berserk sooo yeaah. the story didn't do much for me either, but i can at least say that it gets better after i think 14th episode? it gets hectic

aah i used to love queen too! i kinda changed genres, but i used to listen to innuendo religiously lol they were such a cool band

thank you! i think being a weeb is cooler than it used to be, and like i'm not ashamed of it or anything LMAOO cause one episode of evangelion will smack them in the head. but also like- EVERYONE watches attack on titan

i translate the last season of aot weekly and my dad asked for the link to it, so they could check it out. i sent him the link, and while talking to his friend he mentions it and his friend- who is like 50 and a military officer- says "oh yeah that show is awesome!" 😭 i'll rewatch it with them this summer!! they don't know that yet tho. i might need to tell them to just squeeze themselves a little bit and wait for the third season. i told my dad that they compare aot to game of thrones, and they really like got sooooo

enneagram is that XwX ones! all of them are istj's and 1w9's if i remember correctly, personality database is down rn. i feel like they would like each other, but not really fond of. all of them seem to like upbright, cheery people (itadori, tanjiro, denji and power) so they would be good coworkers, not friends lol

the va lore is so big that i can't even follow it lol. they are cool tho, i sometimes see tiktoks of them too! i love their commentary too! va's are usually very into their characters- gojo's va being an exception

he definitely lurks in the shadows of tumblr. i mean, the man got in disguise and watched jjk 0 to see people's reaction lol. i wonder if he knows how loved satosugu as a ship is </3

i believe to the civilians, sorcerers are devils. especially now. we might actually see that pov post culling game. it would be fun to have an aot-esque turn of events

KJNASDKWNA NOT THE TAG--

no cause talking to you DOES make me feel better <3 i'm going on an EVEN more hectic week and god hold me back cause by the end of sunday, i will be ready to smack a bitch. i can't believe how things can be even worse every week. i also can't believe how school became this hard ONLY on my second semester ever like last semester was hard but NOT LIKE THIS

yeah i get that. i mean, if you're not super into theater or see yourself in that path, no need to tire yourself. it's so hard to find a career at this early age tbh. hopefully, you can find something you would enjoy int he long term. tho, plan z sounds great too! comm is, from what ive heard, a fun field.

and no, you don't sound spoiled and fuck anyone that would think so. it's your future, you should be picky. it's your right to do so.

ALSO i read your fic and IT WAS SO GOOD???!?!?!? PLEASE WRITE MORE???? like the way you described the environment, gojo and reader was just chef's kiss. i wasn't sure if i should post that other ask, so i wanted to write here <3 you're such an amazing writer, please feed us more

have a great week! kissies :*

#🥳 anon

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